Journal of the New York Botanical Garden

JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
VOL. 43
No. 507
MARCH
1 9 4 2
PAGES
57— 88
JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
CAROL H. WOODWARD, Editor
USABLE PLANTS
THERE was a time— before the oceans were crossed by sailing vessels—
when each great land- mass had only those food plants that grew there
naturally. But for the last four centuries the plants of the Americas
( corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and others) have been known and cultivated in
Europe and Asia, while the rice and wheat, the cabbages, beets, and turnips
of Eurasia have been grown and eaten in the western hemisphere.
But now there comes a time when each continent is again restricted,
not only in its sources of food, but also in the plants that it uses for
spices, flavorings, medicines, perfumes and cosmetics, as well as a great
number of essential plant products, among them the rubber which goes into
tires and the coconut which contributes to nitro- glycerine.
Instead of importing their products, as formerly, North America can
learn to raise many plants from other continents. Many green things from
the wild, heretofore unnoticed, can be brought into the economic sphere.
Much new information is needed about both cultivated and native plants
and their possibilities.
During March and April the New York Botanical Garden in several
ways will promote a practical knowledge about usable plants. This month,
at the International Flower Show, the Garden is staging an exhibit of
more than 100 of the plants that were used for food and medicine by the
Indians of North America. Immediately after Easter there will be a
two- day conference organized by the Botanical Garden to tell the story of
the major contributions of each continent toward providing useful plants
to the rest of the world, and to present the problem America has to face
in furnishing its own supplies of these plants or locating satisfactory
substitutes.
Every person who visits the Garden's exhibit at the International Flower
Show ( March 16- 21) or who attends the Herb Conference ( April 7 and 8)
will be impressed by the practical lessons in this exhibit and program.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
March 1942
T H E SHADBUSH IN FLOWER Cover Photograph Helen M. Woodward
( The fruits of Amelanchier canadensis were an important
food for the North American Indian.)
FOOD PLANTS OF T H E INDIANS Marion A. 6? G. L. Wittrock 57
WILD PLANTS USED IN COOKERY Milton A. Hopkins 71
MEDICINES FROM PLANTS Marion A. £? G. L. Wittrock 76
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS AT T H E GARDEN 86
NOTICES AND REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 87
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT 88
The Journal is published monthly by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York,
N. Y. Entered at the Post Office in New York, N. Y., as second- class matter. Annual subscription
$ 1.00. Single copies IS cents. Free to members of the Garden.
JOURNAL
of
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
VOL. 43 MARCH 1942 No. 507
Food ^ Plants Of The Indians
Vegetables, Grains, Fruits, Seasonings
Gleaned from the Wild by the
North American Natives
By Marion A. and G. L. Wittrock
WERE we in the woods or in the open country miles and miles from
civilization, could we exist for a week without our customary food,
or live for a year without seeds and the means for cultivating plants ?
Stranded under these circumstances, would we necessarily starve? Ques­tions
of this nature have often been asked by members of groups tramping
over the country. In some instances hikers have actually been in a situa­tion
when a bit of knowledge of our native plant life and its possibilities
would have prevented uncomfortable moments.
Let us go into the woods or open country and, observing what could be
used for food, note our possible chance of existence.
We know that the North American Indians were dependent to a large
extent on the plants that could be gathered from the wild, for while they
sometimes raised corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes and sunflowers,* these
did not always provide enough or sufficiently varied food, and of course
* When Columbus landed in America, the Indians in what is now the United States
were cultivating the five major varieties of corn classed as flint, flour, dent, sweet,
and pop. They were careful selectors of seed for all of their crops. Omaha tribes
had as many as 48 varieties of pumpkins and squashes, and they learned early that
varieties hybridized, sometimes ruining a crop if specially desired strains were planted
too close together. Indian plant culture, however, was by no means on the high-production
basis we now pursue in agriculture. There was no plowing or cultivation,
no tilling of the soil. The Indian cleared a small plot and planted his kernels of
corn in hills. Between these hills he sowed seeds of the sunflower, pumpkin, squash,
and bean, the sunflower, of which the seeds were eaten, serving as protection for the
growing corn and as a screen against the ravaging crows.
The corn story is the story of the American Indian. Besides more than 200
different recipes, there are records of the use of com in medicines, beverages, dyes,
ceremonies, and the arts. The cultivation of corn was an indicator, of the state of
cultural progress of a tribe.
57
58
no crops at all were attempted by the nomadic tribes. So the Indian found
many wild plants to satisfy his palate, and those same plants are still
growing in North American woods and fields.
Could we exist on these native plants? Yes, if we are not too fastidious
and will accept what could be eaten. Of the 3,500 different species known
to have been used by the Indians in America either for foods, beverages,
fibers, medicines, dyes or utensils, nearly half were used for food.
A number of trees and shrubs provided nuts; many herbaceous plants
gave greens and other types of vegetables; edible fruits came from in­numerable
plant sources; and many bulbs and tubers which are passed
unnoticed today provided tasty vegetables, seasonings, or nourishing
ground meal. In the absence of wheat, the Indians used the seed of many
other grass- plants for flour.
Nuts for Nourishment
But perhaps the most important native food plant of the Indian was the
oak. Meal made of parched acorns that have been leeched with water to
remove the injurious tannin has a delicious flavor and is nutritious. In­dians
long ago discovered the value of acorn meal, and they learned early
how to remove the tannin by placing ground acorns in a fine- meshed
basket in a stream where the water could trickle through continuously.
After nine or ten days, the leeched meal would become pink in color and
sweet in taste. When made into " pancakes" and fried in animal grease or
vegetable oil, it provided a tasty and wholesome dish.
The trees with the sweetest acorns are the California live oak, Quercus
agrifolia, and the basket or cow oak, Q. Michauxu. of the Atlantic States,
but any acorn may be used for food if the tannin is removed.
Indians ate the nuts of more than 40 other species of trees and shrubs,
as well as the nut- like seed of the water chinkapin, or American lotus,
Nelumbium luteum. They roasted the nuts, extracted oil by crushing the
meat, boiling and cooling it, and skimming the oil off the top of the water,
or ground them into meal for soups, mush, even puddings— the last being
made from the Indian nut, or pinon, Pi mis edulis. Of course the 43 species
known do not occur within the boundary of any one woodland. Our
eastern woods that we have entered with a hope for food would reward us
with the American beech, Fagus grandifolia; several species of the hickory,
Carya; the black walnut, Juglans nigra, and the butternut, / . cinerea. And
we must not forget the hazelnuts. Cory/ us americana and C. cornuta.
Unfortunately, these are all seasonal foods which may not be ripe when
we are wandering in the woods, say in the spring or summer. We must,
however, keep this form of food in mind to store for winter use, as did
the Indians. Had we the Indian knowledge of the woodland and were
we on the alert, in the springtime we could possibly find caches of beech­nuts
that had been stored by the deer mouse. This little creature usually
59
The yellow- flowered American lotus or water chinkapin furnished food with its nut'} i\ e
seeds, also its tuberous roots.
gathers from 4 to 8 quarts of the small nut and it might have failed to use
its winter supply. Indian women would find these caches and rob the
storehouse, but would always leave a handful of corn in return. Would
we be as appreciative?
Hundreds of Kinds of Fruits
Fruits are our next possible source of food. It is surprising to observe
that the Indians enjoyed fresh berries and berry- like fruits from at least
278 species of plants that occur in the United States. Besides eating ber­ries
raw, they boiled, baked, or dried them, crushed them for cakes and
mush, or mixed the fruit with seed meal for flavor. And many berries
were used for beverages, seasoning, spices, and in medicine. More than
50 kinds were dried for winter use, one, the service- berry, Amelanchier
canadensis, being pressed into loaves weighing from 10 to 15 pounds. It
60
was described by Lewis of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition as most
delicious when served as a winter food, eaten raw or broken into soups.
One of our common blueberries, Vaccinium pensylvanicum, was dried
in the sun as we dry raisins or currants for winter use. Some tribes ate
the dried berries with dried sweet corn sweetened with maple sugar. This
recipe was the famous " Menominee dish." The Flambeau Ojibwe cooked
the dried berries with wild rice or venison. They also made a delicious
sweet bread of the dried fruit. But not all of the berries eaten were so
palatable. We challenge anyone to claim that he enjoys the woody, bitter,
coarse berries of the carrion- flower, Smilax herbacca, yet Indians ate them
raw or cooked, besides using them in medicine.
Naturally, the native blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries
and strawberries were relished by the Indians, but let us turn to fruits not
popularly classed as berries.
We find that the Indians throughout the United States picked fruit, in
addition to berries, from 212 species of plants. These fruits were eaten
raw, boiled, made into meal for bread, baked into cakes, dried for winter
use, candied, used for flavors, cooked as a gruel or mush, parched, roasted,
and also cooked and served as a sauce. We all enjoy fruits and consider
them necessary to health, but to the Indians they were sometimes even
more important. The fruits of many cactus species will serve as an illus­tration.
When the prickly pear or tuna ripened, southwestern tribes would
gather and celebrate for weeks before the actual harvest, for this period
began their calendar year. After proper rituals the new year would begin;
then the Indians would work feverishly harvesting the fruit.
In our section, here in the East, we may gather wild plums, cherries,
hawthorns, persimmons and many other fruits.
Fruit pods, especially of members of the Pea family, may also be used
as food. Our records show that the pods of 14 species were eaten raw,
while the fruit pods of more than 15 species were cooked as a vegetable
or potherb. Perhaps the most interesting of this group is the mesquite,
Prosopis glandulosa, which grows in the Southwest. This yellow fruit
consists of a bean- like pod 6 to 8 inches long containing numerous hard
dark seeds between which there is a considerable quantity of yellow,
farinaceous substance which is sweet and agreeable to the taste. Indians
of the Mojave Desert section pounded this yellow pulp in their crude
mortars after removing the seeds and husks, then made it into a kind of
cake that resembled cornmeal in appearance and taste.
The discarded seeds were ground into a meal which was baked into a
kind of bread or prepared as a mush. The pod of the screw- bean, Prosopis
pubescens, was used in a similar way.
Flowers Fried and Boiled
Of the many flowers found in nature, how many do we use as food?
Those that are grown in vegetable gardens today are all of Eurasian
61
origin— cauliflower, broccoli, and artichoke ( of which we eat the involucral
bracts of the flower in the bud stage). The Indians, however, ate raw
the flowers of 24 species of wild plants ; boiled the flowers of many others ;
fried the flowers of the beautiful redbud, Cercis canadensis; boiled the
buds of the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, and of Spanish bayonet,
Yucca baccata; and cooked as potherbs the inflorescence of 15 other species
in the bud stage.
Leaves for Greens and Potherbs
This brings up the question of greens, or potherbs made of leaves and
shoots. The many plants used by the Indians make indeed an imposing
list. It seems that anything green, tender, and not too fibrous was used.
More than a dozen different kinds of leaves were eaten raw, others were
used as relishes, the leaves of 59 species were boiled as we prepare spinach,
and 14 kinds were boiled with meat. Species of clover, Trifolium, were
foraged by California tribes. Indians were often observed in the fields
eating the plants raw, though they did have a pouch of salt from which they
would occasionally take a pinch to give a bit of flavor— and incidentally
aid digestion.
The common milkweed was gathered in early spring and boiled as a
potherb, as were the young plants of the cow parsnip, Heraclcum lanatum,
which they were apparently better able to distinguish than the average
white man can from the poisonous members of this family. The Indians
boiled the whole plant of various species of Oxalis; the lovely plant of
the marsh marigold, Caltha palustris; the pleasant, succulent stem and
leaves of the western miner's lettuce, Monfla perfoliata, and of scores of
others, including the very young leaves and shoots of the pokeweed,
Phytolacca decandra, a plant which becomes poisonous when it matures.
We find not one section throughout the United States that failed to have
at least a few plants for use as a potherb to the Indian.
Greens that were gathered from the wild, like those above, were sea­sonal
foods, used when available to give added flavor to meats. Seeds,
roots, and tubers were taken more seriously because this class of food
could be stored for winter use.
Native Grains and Other Seed Foods
Besides that most important of seed plants, maize or Indian corn,
which was cultivated, the Indians depended on the seeds of many wild
plants for food.
We are so accustomed to the use of our Eurasian grain plants, such as
wheat, barley, rye, millet, rice and oats, that we do not accept the possi­bility
of other grass species that could be used as grains. Without question
we are now cultivating the best grain plants that nature can offer, but
there are many we could use were we patient enough to harvest them.
Wars were fought over wild rice fields in northern United States and Canada. The
grains from the heads of Zizania aquatica. ( shown here approximately Y+ natural size)
were one of the most important Indian foods in the regions where they grew.
63
Either the grain of native grasses is too small, the hull or chaff too difficult
to remove, or the harvest too small in return for the labor expended, to
rouse an interest in this source of food.
Wild rice, Zizania aquatica, however, is now becoming a grain of the
market. It was an important food of the Indians, particularly in the
northern parts of the United States. This grass has many advantages over
our cereals, particularly because it renews itself annually by seed. No
planting is required, no cultivation, only harvesting, storing the seed, and,
for the Indians, protecting the stand from other tribes. The Great Lakes
Region was the seat of many tribal wars for possession of the rice fields.
The grain was highly prized by the Indians, who called it in general
" good berry," or " manomin," or " manoman," from which the Menominee
tribe derives its name. Indians would gather the grain by canoe, pulling
the reeds over into the boat to thresh the heads. Though it is a very
laborious task, one man, it has been observed, could reap as much as
780 pounds in a season. Forty pounds a day was considered a good harvest.
Returning to shore with their load of grain, the Indians would parch but
not scorch the seed, then trample over the grain to thresh the hull, and
finally winnow the seed in the air to remove the chaff. The parching process
dried out excess moisture and destroyed insect eggs that might have been
in the rice. Thus safe storage was assured.
Wild rice is restricted in its distribution, so it was known to only a
limited number of tribes, but another grass that was used by the North
American Indians is so cosmopolitan that it has been found growing wild
throughout the temperate zones of the world, and on nearly every con­tinent
it has played an important part in the lives of primitive people.
Civilization ignores the plant other than its possible use as a sand binder.
We refer to the common reed grass or cane grass, Phragmites communis,
which is familiar to all New Yorkers who cross the Hudson River into
New Jersey, for acres of it are visible from automobile or train. Besides
being useful for thatching, weaving, and making arrow shafts, this tall
perennial grass is a source of food throughout the year. During the
winter the rhizomes can be dug and boiled as potatoes; in the early spring
the shoots that push up from the marsh land can be prepared as we cook
asparagus; the partly unfolded leaves can be cooked as a pot herb; finally,
the large panicle oi grain can be harvested for seed. The kernel is small
and is coated with a dull red hull which is most difficult to remove, but
the seed contains nutritious food materials rated between wheat and rice.
The Indians did not remove the hull, but cooked the whole grain into a
reddish gruel which was wholesome as a food, though not too appetizing
in appearance.
Frequently the Indians ground together a mixture of seeds from several
kinds of plants, and the Spanish word " pinole" has been adopted through­out
the country as the name for this combination of seed food. Pinole was
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either eaten raw, mixed with water and eaten uncooked, boiled into a
gruel, or added to water in very small quantities to serve as a thirst-quencher.
To the grasses were added seeds of certain members of the
Goosefoot, Amaranth, Buckwheat, Loasa, Mint, and Composite families,
the normal mixture consisting of three to five different kinds plus enough
corn meal to give it body.
Seeds of many of our native plants could be used as food were we
forced to ward off hunger or had we but the patience to gather them. We
naturally would have to know the plants, but we would be fairly safe if
we were to gather only the seeds of grasses. Many of them have delicious
flavors that would make our bread and cakes the envy of a chef. The
Indians boiled the seeds of 26 species as we do rice; of others they made
meal from which they prepared delicious cakes usually sweetened with
honey or maple sugar. They found ten kinds of plants that they could
use as popcorn; and others for gruel or mush, for seasonings and flavors,
for roasting or parching, and 90 kinds of which they made meal, even
from some a fine flour. The imposing number of species used would cer­tainly
give us our daily bread, our necessary starch for food. While these
records represent plants throughout the United States, we feel certain
that a few of the species may be found in any one locality across the
country. As we wander through the woods, its margins, along the streams,
beside lakes, we could hardly keep from tramping over possible food.
Edible Roots and Other Underground Parts
Most of these seed- plants we would find in late summer or autumn, but
if we are caught in the woods say in winter time, we still could survive
because of the many roots, tubers, and bulbs that are edible and even
palatable.
Bulbs and corms were highly relished by the Indians. We naturally
think first of onions, and the Indians enjoyed all the native species, eating
not only the bulb but the shoot. Chicago derives its name from the wild
garlic, Allium canadense, a species of onion formerly common along the
banks of the Chicago River, particularly where the center of the city, from
Michigan Boulevard westward, now is located. The banks of the river
were covered with this strong- smelling plant, and the Winnebago Indian
would come from afar to gather the SHIKAKO'AK, the " wild weed" ( also
called " skunk weed") at SHIKAK'O, " the place where the skunk weed
grows."
Of the bulbs we find that more than 35 species were eaten raw, 21
species baked or roasted, 19 species boiled; and many prepared as a meal
for bread and cakes, or dried for winter use, served as relishes, used as
seasoning, boiled for soups, and steamed.
Many of the bulbous plants are ornamental enough to be used in horti­culture
today. Who has not admired the beautiful mariposa lily, sego lily,
Known today only in horticulture { or as wild flowers to hunt in spring and early
summer,) Brodiaea, Camassia, and Dadecatheon, or shooting star, were sought by the
Indians for their edible underground parts.
and star tulip— all species of Calochortus? The butterfly mariposa, Calo-chortus
venustus, was highly esteemed by the Indians for its sweet corms.
Sego lily, Calochortus Nuttallii, the state flower of Utah, was a delicious
food for them and also believed a common article of food among the first
Mormons in Utah. The biscuit- root or camass, Camassia esculenta, has
been considered an important article of diet among all western Indian
tribes. Another western species, the California hyacinth or grassnut,
Brodiaea capitata, is both beautiful as a flower and good as a food. And
many other species of Brodiaea were used. Coming east we could use
bulbs and corms of species of Trillium; of the spring- beauty, Claytonia
virginica; the dog- tooth violet, Erythronium americanum; and many others.
The common jack- in- the- pulpit, Arisacma triphyllum t was considered
an excellent food and was used so extensively by Indians in the New
England states that it became known as the Indian turnip. We know the
fiery taste of the corm if we bite into it, but once it is boiled thoroughly
the needle- shaped calcium oxalate crystals are dissolved and the turnip
becomes most palatable. We find this important plant employed more than
thirty different ways by the Indians.
65
IMPORTANT PRIMITIVE FOOD PLANTS IN NORTH AMERICA
Upper left: Young shoots of po\ eweed, or sco\ e, were coo\ ed in spring. Upper right:
The tubers of the arrowhead were widely used by Indian tribes. Lower left: The thick
67
Of even greater usefulness was another member of the same family, the
Virginia tuckahoe or arrow- arum, Peltandra virginica. This species is
found in shallow waters of the Atlantic states from Canada to Florida. The
raw flesh of the compact, tuber- like cluster of roots is exceedingly acrid
and poisonous, and the same fiery sensation is experienced biting into it as
into the corm of the jack- in- the- pulpit. The Indians, however, discovered
how to make this plant a valuable food by heating or roasting the under­ground
portion by the following method: A deep pit was dug and lined
with stones; a fire was built in the pit, and when the stones were hot, the
embers were removed and the 5- to 6- pound clusters of roots were placed
in the pit, covered with earth, and kept there for two days. In this way
they would be " cured" of their unpleasant character and become good
food when dried and ground into meal.
The Sioux Indians boiled the rhizomes of the attractive butterfly- weed
of the roadsides, Asclepias tuberosa, and also cooked the young seed- pods
with buffalo meat, while the Delaware tribe ate the shoots of this plant
as we eat asparagus.
The cat- tails, Typha latifolia and 7'. angustifolia, were also important
plants to the Indians, for the rhizomes can be dug at any time and
prepared as a food. They consist of an almost solid core of starch, which
was dried and ground into meal. Analysis shows that the flour contains
about the same amount of protein as corn meal, but that it has less fat. It
could be substituted for cornstarch in puddings.
A tuber of special interest is developed late in the fall at the end of the
rhizome of the wappatoo or common arrowhead, Sagittaria latifolia, which
grows in wet places from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Canada to Mexico.
Lewis and Clarke reported the merits of this potato- like staple, and noted
that it was used in commerce by Indians along the Columbia River in
Oregon. An Indian woman would wade into the water waist deep, if
necessary, and with her toes would loosen the tubers from the mud and
break them away from the long slender rhizomes. They would rise to the
surface, from where they were easily placed in her canoe. Roasted or
boiled, this tuber becomes soft, palatable, and digestible.
The ground- nut, Apios tuberosa, can be used as a spring vegetable by
simply gathering and cooking the young seedlings, and the pod, in late
summer, contains a few peas that are wholesome. But the important part
of the plant is the chain of swollen knobs that develop on the roots in
the autumn, sometimes attaining the size of a pullet's egg by the time
they are ready to eat after two or three years' growth.
An important root crop of the western American Indians was the
famous bread- root upon which they partly subsisted in winter. Belonging
root- clusters of the arrow arum were made edible by ihe Indians by baling for two
days in a. deep pit. Lower right: The bread- root or prairie apple of the West furnished
a major food for both Indians and whites in the early days.
to the Pea family and botanically called Psoralea esculenta, it has also been
known as prairie apple, prairie potato, and pomme blanche. Roasted in
hot ashes, these fleshy roots gave a nutritious food similar to yams. For
winter use they were carefully dried, then stored in dry places in the
huts. When wanted for food they were mashed between two stones,
mixed with water, and baked into cakes over hot coals. Dug early in the
spring they were eaten raw.
The other so- called bread- root, known also as racine blanche, cous,
cous- root, and biscuit- root, Lomatium ambiguum, of the Carrot family,
was similarly important to the early inhabitants, explorers and pioneers
in the West. When fresh it tastes like parsnips, to which it is related, but
as it withers and dries it becomes brittle and very white and acquires a
most agreeable mild flavor as of celery. It keeps well and is easily reduced
to flour. Many other roots of the Umbelliferae have been used, but the
presence of a few species of dangerously poisonous plants in this family
makes it unwise even to suggest them.
Man- of- the- earth, wild jalap, man- root, or wild sweet potato, Ipomoea
pandurata, a pinkish- flowered twin sister of the morning glory, was com­monly
used by the Indians from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi and
even farther west. A vicious weed of farm lands today, it was once a
valuable food, for the edible root sometimes weighs as much as 20 pounds.
In the Southwest, the Indians found a few wild species of Solanum,
notably 5". Jamesii and S. Fremontii, close relatives of the true potato,
Solanum tuberosum, from Peru.
Also in the West, the balsam- root or arrow- leaf, Balsamorrhiza sagittata,
a member of the Thistle family, proved a useful plant to the Indians, for
its agreeable- tasting roots were eaten either raw or cooked. The young
stems were served raw as a salad, and the seeds were roasted and ground
into a kind of flour.
One of the strangest of all the foods of the American Indians is a plant
which is a curiosity in itself. Native in the Sonoran desert and adjacent
sandy wastes to the north, it lives as a parasite on the roots of a shrub.
Until its small flowers appear, the plant closely, resembles a fungus, for
above its entwining roots there is a long subterranean stem which widens
into a succulent funnel- shaped cup out of which the flowers arise just at
the surface of the sand. This succulent underground stem is the portion
that is eaten. Travelers and prospectors have also been known to obtain
a life- saving drink of fresh water from within the submerged cup. The
plant was first seen by a white man during a railroad survey in 1854. It
was described ten years later by John Torrey, the famous botanist, and
named by him Ammobroma sonorac, meaning " sand food of the Sonora."
The Indians, and later the whites of that region, ate the stems either raw
or cooked. When boiled they have a taste like sweet potatoes. The plant
was also ground with mesquite beans to make a kind of pinole.
69
How many barks of trees, shrubs, or roots do we use as a food? None
today as a food, and only a few ( such as bark of cinnamon, sassafras, and
cinchona) as spice or medicine. But the Indians used the bark of over 20
species as food. One major group of Indians gained their tribal name,
Algonquin, which means " they eat trees," because bark was a part of their
diet. Species of willow, poplar, pine and cedar were used. The cambium
layer of the western hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla. was scraped off and
made into a coarse bread in the Northwest. The Algonquins also made cakes
of the cambium tissue of slippery elm, Ulmus fulva. Many other
tribes ate bark when food was scarce but they considered it strictly a
famine food.
The Indian ate no mushrooms until the white man showed him how,
but lichens of a dozen different kinds were used. Perhaps the most in­teresting
is Alectoria jubata, a lichen that grows on pine and fir trees in
the Columbia River region. It was considered delicious when cooked
with camass roots or boiled to a jelly- like mass by itself.
The white man is just beginning to learn the food value of the ferns, of
The turnip- l\\ e root of the cow par-snip,
also the young shoots; the root
of the puccoon, and the flesh be­tween
the seeds in the pods of mes­quite
were foods of the North
American Indian.
SSr
Puccoon picture, above at the right,
by courtesy of the University of
Minnesota, Department of Botany.
70
WILD PLANTS IN THE INDIAN'S DIET, ALL RECOMMENDED TODAY
Upper left: Three native species of onion— Allium canadense, A. tricoccum, and A.
cernuum, commonly k. nown as wild garlic, lee\, and onion, all of which were enjoyed
by the Indians. Upper right: The ground- nut or wild bean, u; hich furnishes food from
its root tubers, young shoots, and immature seeds. Lower left: Rhizomes, shoots, and
young seed-£ ods of the butterfly- weed all are said to ma\ e pleasant eating. Lower right:
Unfurling fronds of many ferns were eaten by the Indians, and some can be found in
the market today. Bracken, of which only the central part of the stem can be used,
and the cinnamon fern are shown here.
71
which the Indians used at least 20 species. Some of these are now being
served in restaurants of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and at least one
kind is being commercially canned. The cinnamon fern, Osmunda cin-namomea,
was used as a spring potherb. The fiddle- heads, or unfurling
fronds, were gathered and simmered for an hour, then put into soup
thickened with flour. This dish, with a flavor similar to wild rice, was
widely eaten. The young fronds of the interrupted fern, Osmunda Clay-toniana,
were also used and considered a good vegetable, tasting somewhat
like chestnuts.
The outstanding fern plant used as a food was the common brake or
bracken, Pteridium aquilinum. The rhizome was used by many tribes, its
bark being removed and the white heart roasted. Though it resembles the
dough of wheat, its taste is too pungent for most white people, but the
Indians relished this nutritious food, particularly in the Northwest. The
intermediate part of the frond in the early spring is delicious and when
properly prepared it suggests asparagus shoots.
We have had our long walk through the woods and fields and have
discovered that sustenance can be found if we but look for it. There is
food in the woods, prairies and meadows, along the shores of lakes and
rivers, in pools, even on the margins of deserts. We do not recommend
these native foods as staple articles of diet but suggest them in cases of
necessity. Our present controlled and selected foods cannot be surpassed
in flavor, nutrition, digestibility, and satisfaction. A little knowledge of
the uses of our native plants, however, does have value, offers a possible
new flavor or spice for the gourmet, and provides a source of food in
an emergency.
Wild ^ Plants Used in ( Rookery
By Milton Hopkins,
University of Oklahoma
THE idea of using native American plants for cooking is as old as
the aborigines on this continent. Undoubtedly our forefathers de­rived
many more ideas of value from the Indians than they ever gave in
return, and one of their most useful lessons was that of obtaining vege­table
products from selected herbs, shrubs, and trees.
So if you ever tire of the more or less common foods from your local
market— and who does not?— there is a way of bringing to your table
some of the most delectable dishes ever tasted, by using ordinary plants
that are growing wild in nearby pastures, fields, and woods. Though
doubtless acquainted with many, we are inclined to overlook them in
preference to commercial fruits and vegetables, and thereby we are miss-
72
ing the spice of novelty that they might provide in our diet, as well as
the benefit of their abundant vitamins.
But before we begin to experiment with them, a word of caution ought
to be given. Unless you are absolutely sure of your plant and can identify
it as to genus and species, and unless you know that it contains no harmful
or dangerous chemicals, stay away from it. Ignorance can cause calami­ties
of the most tragic kind, and the game is most assuredly not worth
the candle. But if, on the other hand, you are positive that the plants
are edible, there are innumerable recipes which you can concoct from them,
For example, the tubers of arrowhead ( Sagittaria latifolia), which is
common on the margins of ponds and swamps and in other moist places
of eastern and central North America, are as toothsome a morsel as
anyone could hope to enjoy. I have eaten them baked and boiled, as one
cooks potatoes, and found them eminently satisfactory. They should be
cooked about 30 minutes and are best if they are peeled afterward. The
mealy quality of the potato is not present, and the texture is somewhat
more smooth. The arrowhead tuber makes a superb dish for picnic
suppers and lunches, and if the picnic grounds are not too far distant
from a colony, one can make the event outstanding by asking the guests
to dig their own tubers and roast them in a bed of hot smouldering coals.
Another plant which might serve as a substitute for the potato is the
ground- nut, or wild bean ( Apios tuberosa). Eaten raw, the root tubers
are quite palatable, but they are better when cooked for about half an
hour. Boil or bake them and serve them without any seasoning, as condi­ments
or spices spoil the flavor. The ground- nut belongs to the Bean
and Pea family and it grows wild as a twining vine in light woods from
Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas, all the way eastward.
Then there is the hog peanut, which cannot be excluded from this group.
Its botanical name is Amphicarpa monoica, and it grows in deep rich
woodlands in moist soils and extends throughout the same general range
as the wild bean. Although the seeds of this plant are the edible portions,
these develop underground like the true peanut and must be dug out.
They are somewhat sweetish but more pleasant than the raw commercial
peanut, which at best is not particularly agreeable. The Indians ate these
hog peanuts raw, as a- fruit, and I have tried them several times myself.
Unfortunately, no records seem extant which would indicate their value
as a substitute for the roasted peanut, nor have I ever tried them this
way. But if dug out of the ground they last for several weeks in the
house and make a highly nutritious food.
Among the plants producing edible leaves and stems there are so many
that space will permit me to mention only a few. Perhaps my favorite
dish is a salad of mixed spring greens, all of which can be obtained from
roadsides and vacant lots. I like to gather as many different kinds as I
can and mix them together in an ordinary wooden salad bowl which has
73
been previously wiped with the bulbs of the common wild onion. Here
is my recipe:
1 large bunch of young curly dock leaves ( Rumex crispus)
2 or 3 clusters of young basal rosettes of shepherd's purse ( Capsella Bursa-pastoris)
6 or 8 bunches of young dandelion greens ( Taraxacum officinale)
3 large bunches of watercress ( Radicula Nastnrtium- aquaticum)
or 2 or 3 bunches of the basal leaves of the violet wood- sorrel ( Oxalis violacea)
Chop the ingredients thoroughly and marinate just before sen ing with
a dressing of vegetable oil, vinegar, and spices as desired. Serve on a bed of
young leaves of curly dock and garnish with the watercress leaves.
This makes a salad of which the most epicurean taste would be proud,
and as well as being tasty and attractive in appearance it is extremely
rich in vitamins. Endless combinations and variations may be tried from
these salad plants, but in my estimation they all require a highly seasoned
dressing. As they absorb the oil very rapidly, the greens should not be
marinated until immediately before serving. In making the dressing I use
as many spices as I have on hand, especially mustard and garlic. These
greens usually have a somewhat bitter taste but the dressing eliminates
that entirely.
If you hesitate about eating plants raw, then here are some suggestions
for potherbs. Purslane { Portulaca oleracea) is one of the most common
weeds in gardens all over North America and is a noxious pest. Its
succulent reddish- purple stems and small, fattish leaves in whose axils
appear the tiny yellow flowers are familiar to everyone who has expe­rienced
the pleasures of gardening. In my opinion these young leaves
and stems, when cooked about 15 minutes in boiling salted water, are far
better than spinach or Swiss chard. Their flavor is more delicate, being
not unlike that of beet greens. But they cook down at an almost appalling
rate, and a mess adequate to serve four people would require several quarts
of the fresh greens. But when the weed is so abundant in every garden,
the mere gathering of a sufficient quantity is nothing. Of all the potherb-plants,
purslane excels. On only one possible count can it be excluded.
It does have a slimy aspect, much like the pods of cooked okra, and this
feature might make it objectionable to some persons.
Lamb's- quarters ( Chcnopodium album) are also good, are almost as
ubiquitous as a weed, and are cooked in exactly the same way.
Another favorite potherb of mine is a plant familiar to all gardeners
and the bane of most of them, the common chickweed ( Stellaria Mcadia)
which I cook in boiling salted water for 20 minutes and use it like
purslane. ( One does tire of the same dishes day after dav, even of
weeds!) Its taste is somewhat inferior to that of purslane, but I rank
it higher than spinach. To retain its delicacy, serve it with plenty of
butter rather than with vinegar, and add salt and pepper to suit the taste.
My favorite vegetable, ranking even higher than purslane, is the boiled
74
young flower parts of the common cat- tail. Typha angustifolia and T.
latifolia serve equally well, but the secret is that one must obtain the
young " tails" when they are only a few inches long and while they are
still green. I cut off the stems with the young inflorescences at their
tips and cook them in boiling salted water for 15 or 20 minutes. When
they are tender they may be served either with drawn butter or with a
cream sauce, and eaten as one eats asparagus. Unless gathered when
they are very young the result is a vegetable so tough and unpleasant
that it is not possible to chew it arid the whole thing must be thrown away.
But give me the young tails, whose taste is like a cross between string
beans and asparagus; there is nothing finer.
But what of those plants whose leaves are the sources of beverages?
There are many of these but we can discuss only a few. One of the
best is the New Jersey tea ( Ceanothus am eric anus) whose dried leaves
make an excellent infusion. This shrub was abundantly used during the
American Revolution as a substitute for imported tea, and although the
flavor is not so good it has the same refreshing qualities. The leaves
should be plucked when young, in the late spring or early summer, and
dried for several weeks in a warm, dry closet. Then they may be pulver­ized
and used as one would use ordinary tea leaves. Lemon improves
the flavor as does a touch of cinnamon, but sugar and cream may be
added instead if desired. New Jersey tea tastes not at all like Ceylon
or Indian or Chinese tea, but it is not a bad substitute, and of all the wild
plants whose leaves make good infusions, this is by far the best.
Some people like a tea made from the leaves of either wild bergamot
or bee balm ( Monarda fistulosa and M. didyma). The beverage made
from either species has a very delightful minty fragrance, and although
the aroma is not so delicate as spearmint or peppermint, it is highly
prized. I dry the young leaves in much the same manner as those of
New Jersey tea, and serve the resulting tea with several slices of orange.
This deadens the rather strong minty odor and gives one a much more
satisfactory infusion. It is always a novelty, and although I should not
care to drink the beverage more than once a week, I consider it a pleasing
and refreshing variation from ordinary tea.
Now let us look for a moment at plants with edible fruits and seeds.
Here one finds' an imposing list. Some make good vegetables, some are
best for pies and puddings, many yield jams and jellies of the highest
excellence, and quite a few are a good source of beverages. And then,
of course, one must include the large number of trees whose nuts are so
delicious.
First of all there is the persimmon ( Diospyros virginiana) which,
although it is not abundant northeast of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
cannot be omitted from this paper. It is generally regarded as a useless
fruit, but if its rightful place were bestowed upon it by cooking specialists
75
it would rank well toward the top of any list. As England has her tradi­tional
plum pudding for Christmas, so ought America to have her baked
persimmon pudding. 1 The tree is so common in central and southwestern
North America, and its fruits are so flagrantly wasted that it is a pity
to pass them by. If a market could be created for them, whole orchards
might be started and the resulting profits to farmers would be considerable.
Of course the fruits must never be gathered until several frosts have
touched them, thus making them sweet and edible. And if you wish to
try persimmon pie, use any recipe for pumpkin pie but substitute the
persimmon meat for the pumpkin.
One of my favorite jellies and jams is made from either wild black­berries
or raspberries, and often I combine them. The quality is excellent
and no finer jam exists. Another superior fruit for jam is the lovely
Chickasaw plum ( Prunus angustifolia), which grows in dense low clumps
in sandy regions throughout eastern and central North America, as far
north as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Other wild plums make fine
jams, but none have quite the tang and richness of body which characterize
these fruits. They also make a delicious fruit pie during the early summer
when their reddish- orange drupes hang on the slender branches in great
masses.
Then there is the smooth sumac ( Rhus glabra), whose clusters of
pinkish red fruits can be used for a refreshing cold drink. The little
drupes are ripe in midsummer and should be picked before they become
too old. Their taste is very acid and not at all unlike the lemon. To
make this lemonade one cluster of inflorescences should be used for each
glass. Crush the young fruits with a spoon to extract as much of the
juice as possible. Then add enough sugar to suit the taste ( about two
teaspoons), cover with water and add ice cubes until the glass is full.
The color is a deep pink and the flavor full- bodied. But do not prepare
this drink too far in advance, and do not keep it for more than an hour
or so in the icebox. It quickly becomes rancid and is entirely useless.
For best results it should be prepared and served at once.
In these pages I have discussed only a few of those plants which have
a broad distribution throughout northeastern North America. There are,
however, several plants which, though they are restricted to the prairie
1 Here is my recipe for persimmon pudding:
3 eggs 1 qt. seeded persimmon fruits
V2 teaspoon salt 1 pint cold water
2 cups sweet milk 1 teaspoon soda
3y2 cups flour 1 cup granulated sugar
Wash and seed the fruit ( to make 1 quart, about 3 quarts of whole fruit are
required) and soak them in cold water for about an hour. Then run them through a
colander. Mix the other ingredients in the order given, stirring thoroughly. Pour
the batter into a greased pan and bake at 400° for one hour or until the pudding is a
dark brown in color. Serve either hot or cold with whipped cream or hard sauce
and garnish with maraschino cherries. The pudding keeps well in the icebox for
several days.
76
and plains area of our country, have edible qualities which are very
familiar to anyone who has ever lived in this region. They ought, by all
means, to be mentioned.
The ground plum ( Geoprumnon crassicarpum or, as it is often called by
some botanists, Astragalus caryocarpus) is well known and liked by
everyone who has ever eaten its delicious green seed- pods. Resembling
small green gage plums, these legumes may be eaten raw as a fruit or
cooked as a vegetable like string beans. They also make a pungent pickle.
And what middle- westerner does not know the Indian bread- root or
prairie apple ( Psoralea esculcnta), whose tempting, fat rootstocks are dug
from underground? It is perhaps the most familiar of the edible wild
root- vegetables, and is delectable either cooked or raw. It is the size
of a medium white potato and has a smooth texture and somewhat sweetish
flavor when it is cooked, more palatable than a turnip and not unlike that
of a parsnip.
My objective has been not to compile a list of the many species of
edible plants, but rather to discuss only a few whose attributes are well
known to me from actual experience with them. There are literally
hundreds of others, equally delicious.
Weedy and generally ubiquitous plants can be used in cookery as fre­quently
as they are desired. But those plants whose roots are prized for
their qualities may become extinct if they are used too often. So it is
best to go easy on them and stick to the leafy weeds.
cMedicines From ^ Plants
Panaceas, Charms, and Efficacious Remedies
Employed by the North American Indian
By Marion A. and G. L. Wittrock
" A / f A K E - H I M F E E L - G O O D " w a s t h e Indian name for any
i- Vl. medicinal herb, and such a plant was prized, respected, and
venerated as highly as any food plant. The two were closely linked, for
to be unable to eat was to the North American aborigine a form of tor­ture,
a sign of sickness, to be overcome with medicinal herbs. The Indian
knew that in order to enjoy his food, he must keep himself in good
health. When he felt sick, he had the utmost faith in the medicine man
of his tribe, and he was a willing patient, taking any and every decoction
or brew, and applying any liniment or poultice prescribed. No challenge
or doubt ever came to his mind; to him his medicine man was all- powerful.
Did not this sacred person have direct contact with all spirits, evil or
good? Was not his wisdom even greater than that of the chief, who
77
rarely acted on important tribal problems before consulting him? The
chief of the tribe may have ruled his braves; but the medicine man was
the counselor, teacher, healer, comforter, prophet, and wise one of the
tribe— one to fear, to follow, to obey.
What was his concept of medicine? Explanation of cause and effect
was based on superstition and the supernatural, but application of plant
drugs was founded on empirical experience and pragmatic reasoning. A
plant juice, a tea from a leaf, or a chewed root was good if it worked;
if the medicine failed to cure or heal, the failure was charged to the
" evil spirit" who played an important part in the life of the tribe. Should
he fail in his prophecy to bring rain, a good crop of plant ' food, or plenty
of game, or err in his diagnosis of the sick brave, the medicine man could
always blame the " evil one'' and call on the " good spirit" to help him
overcome the evil taboo. Thus the medicine and religion of the tribe
were closely related.
How much actual knowledge of plants did this medicine man have?
Outside of what he gained by experience in healing, most of his learning
was acquired from his predecessor; in fact, this knowledge, which was
confined to the medicine man and his special " society/' was the most
sacred thing in the tribe. All members of this elite, secret body were
appointed by the acting medicine man. In the Omaha tribe, this group
was called the " Shell Society." Young braves could qualify only when
they succeeded in passing severe and physically painful tests.
Ethnologists have always found it most difficult to learn the secret
knowledge of the medicine man, for the sanctity of this " doctor" came
direct from the spirit world, and it was considered disastrous to the tribe
to reveal its " medicine" to the " white pagan."
The Legend of Medicine
Supposedly, the practice of Indian medicine in most tribes had been
taught long ago by the great spirits of the first tier of the spirit world
where the first " medicine lodge" existed. The legend is told somewhat
as follows:
One of the kind spirits descended to earth and showed the wise Grand­mother
( or Mother) Earth the medicine bag with its roots, leaves and
fruits. He gave her charge of them and she was to keep and nurture
them, and to allow them to grow and obtain added power. The spirit
then— his name varied with the tribes— appeared before the tribe and
instructed the original forefather of the tribe to build a medicine
lodge within a given time, usually four days. On the fourth day the
spirit again appeared and sent the young Indians away while he in­structed
and initiated the elders to the lodge. He gave them fundamentals
about the uses of plants and medicines and taught them the proper cere­mony
for each.
78
This legend reveals why Indians revered " Mother Earth" and why
they always showed their respect, their appreciation for all she had given
to them in food, fiber, and medicine. A gift of tobacco was always
placed in the hole of a plant that had been dug for medicine, and all the
first ripened seed or food was returned to Mother Earth in the spirit of:
" Thank you, Mother Earth; you shall have the first.''
The proper dance with its impressive costumes and masques, the ritual,
and the symbolism it represented were quite as important as plant medi­cines
in the art of healing. The more baffling an illness the greater and
longer was the dance, through which the spirits were invoked for con­sultation.
While the sympathizers—- usually the members of the Society
and of the immediate family, and sometimes even the Chief— sat in a
circle around the patient to keep out evil spirits, the medicine man, to
the beat of the tom- tom, danced himself into a trance to gain the proper
entrance to the spirit world for advice. If the trance failed to develop
he would resort to drugs to gain the effect. The diagnosis thus proceeded
until the patient either recovered or he passed on to the " happy hunting
ground," the Indian's heaven, never to return. A fee was charged, the
amount depending on the nature of the sickness, payable in the form of
beads, blankets, baskets or hides, even ponies.
The medicine lodge was the Indian's drug store, the medicine man's
sanctum. Minor ailments were treated there. But if the case was serious,
the medicine man called on the patient and administered his decoctions.
If no change developed, he gave a stronger herb. Should this also fail, he
resorted to the smoke treatment, which usually consisted of burning leaves,
stems and, for some conditions, flowers, thus causing a smoke for the
patient to inhale; or he heated stones for a sweat bath in a " steam tepee,"
throwing essential oil plants on the hot stones for their volatile vapors.
If these remedies failed, the illness was considered most serious; he then
resorted to more severe treatments and mystic symbolisms. If the patient
was in a coma, and showed little sign of life, the medicine man would
resort to a strong sternutative, a sneeze medicine. The pulverized root
bark of the Kentucky coffee- tree, Gymnocladus dioica, was so used. If one
spark of life still existed in the patient, he would certainly sneeze—- some­times
fatally. Many such sneeze- inducing plants were available to the
medicine man.
If at this point the patient still showed no signs of improvement, and
there was still life, the medicine man then called on the higher spirits
through the dance.
We have often heard people express the idea that the Indian must have
been healthy because he lived outdoors in good fresh air and sunshine
with plenty of exercise and good natural food. If this were all true the
Indian population at the advent of Columbus could easily have been so
large that our forefathers would have had trouble finding an open place
79
HERBS FOR CATARRH AND
SWELLINGS
The root of the golden- seal ( shown in flower at the left) was used by the Indians, as
it is used by doctors today, for catarrhal conditions. Leaves of the wild calla ( right)
gave the Indians a poultice for swellings.
to settle. What prevented the growth in Indian population ? One of the
many reasons is most obvious: sanitation, a problem that was never solved
by the aborigines. When a camp ground became uninhabitable, the tribe
would simply move to another site. Whole tribes have been wiped out
with one stroke of a bacterial pestilence that possibly gained its start in
the rubbish heap. Sickness was ever present for the medicine man to cure.
Remedies for Common Stomach Ache
Stomach trouble, often caused by over- eating, was one of the major
problems of the medicine man. Indians enjoyed eating, but did not always
eat wisely. Many of the plants included in their diet were so fibrous
and indigestible that explorers exclaimed on the possible condition of the
Indian's stomach. They could not always digest the food that was eaten.
After a big feast, many a brave would seek his medicine man, holding
his hand on his aching stomach. What was the remedy? Northern America
contained more than 100 plant species from among which the Indian doctor
could choose a stomachic. The outstanding remedy was the sweet flag or
calamus root, Acorus Calamus, considered by many tribes a cure- all. The
ailing Indian would simply chew the root a long time, then would some­times
swallow the pulp. So valuable was this root considered by the
Indians that it was used as a medium of exchange. Why not, when it
was considered a good remedy for dyspeptic conditions, fever, flat­ulence,
cough, toothache, and colic? The whole plant was used in the
smoke treatment for colds. Hunters made garlands of the leaves to hang
around their necks for their pleasant odor and mystic powers. Dakota
warriors chewed the root to a paste which they rubbed on their faces to
prevent excitement and fear in the presence of their enemies. White
men, too, have considered calamus root a good remedy. It was listed in
the pharmacopoeia of the past, and one druggist in New York City in­formed
us that the root was dispensed in his store as late as 1925. It is
still a popular medicine in Europe.
Among other plants that the medicine man used as stomachics were the
rhizome of wild ginger, slsarum canadense; of colic- root, Asarum virgini-cum;
and of the lovely aquatic plant called the water- shield, Brasenia
Schreberi; the leaves and roots of pipsissewa or prince's pine, Chimaphila
umbeliata; and the orange- colored root of the gold- thread, Coptis trifolia.
The Indian doctor may decide that the proper medicine is an emetic,
a mild laxative, or even a strong cathartic. What an amazing assortment
of herbs were available! If emetics were his decision, he could choose
from among 137 species of plants; laxatives could be had from 68 species,
and cathartics from 152 which grew wild north of the Mexican border.
Not all were available in any one region, but every medicine bag contained
a large number of different kinds. The buckthorn was one of the im­portant
emetic plants of the Indians in the Northwest. To us, as cascara
sagrada, Rhamnus Purshmna is known as one of the safest and best laxa­tives
in the world, much surpassing the European species, Rhamnus
cathartica.
In the East, one of these many excellent emetic plants was the witch
hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, a brew of the inner bark being used particu­larly
in cases of poisoning. The Indian also found it useful as a liniment
to cure lame backs or to be rubbed on athlete's legs to keep them limber.
The volatile oil of the plant was used in sweat baths for many ailments.
Lotions were prepared for skin troubles and a decoction was highly valued
as a wash for sore eyes. How similar are our own uses, today, of this
plant. Other interesting emetics were the black drink, yaupon, or emetic
holly, Ilex vomitoria, the compass- plant, SUphium laciniatuiu, and the star-flowered
Solomon's seal, Smiiacina stellata.
Headaches for the Medicine Man to Cure
There is not a race in the world that is immune to headaches. Indians
suffered from them too, caused by the same factors— over- eating, domestic
problems, tribal wars, worry, and excesses of all kinds. The medicine man
had his headaches too, his own and those of his tribe. What magic could
he resort to from his bag of remedies? Counter- irritants gave the quickest
relief. An oil, liniment, powder, or salve applied externally would cause
a greater pain by its sting, smart, or heat with the result that the headache
might become secondary and eventually disappear. Though we too recog­nize
the value of counter- irritants, very few of ours are the same as those
used by the Indians. Perhaps the most interesting primitive headache
81
cure was the jack- in- the- pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, the corm of which
was pulverized and dusted on the aching temples. The theory was that
perspiration would activate the calcium oxalate crystals in the powder and
cause a burning sensation which would become so intense that the head­ache
was gradually forgotten. Among other headache remedies from
plants were the crushed seeds of wild columbine, Aquilegia canadensis;
tea of the leaves and flowers of yarrow, Achillea Millefolium; an inhalant
of crushed roots of spreading dogbane, Apocynum androsaemifolium,
vaporized on live coals; and a decoction of the leaves of the headache- weed,
Clematis Douglasu.
Colds and Fevers Among the Indians
Did the Indians also suffer from colds as we do today ? Yes, and the
medicine man had even more remedies than we have for this still unsolved
scourge of man. The general medicine bag might offer any of 88 differ­ent
kinds of plants to use against colds in the form of a tea, a poultice or
plaster, or compounded with other species in a cough syrup. A quart of
tea made of the inner bark of the hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, was expected
to cure a cold within two days.
Fevers were ever a problem for the medicine man. Some of the simple
ones he could recognize readily, and over the country there were some 113
species of plants from which one tribe or another selected a source for a
febrifuge. Some of these medicines we know to be effective: the root of
the wild sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis; the leaves of the spicebush ( some­times
called fever- bush), Benzoin aestivale; a decoction of the roots of
blue cohosh, or great- fever- medicine, Caulophyllum thalictroides. The bark
of the American Judas- tree or redbud, Ccrcis canadensis, and a tea from
the leaves of Penstemon grandiflorus were also used, likewise a tea from the
leaves and berries of wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, to break a fever
or cold, to cure rheumatism and lumbago, and in general, to " make him
feel good." White men learned the medicinal properties of the winter­green
from the Indians, and incorporated it into their pharmacopoeia as
Oleum Gaultheria.
The medicine man apparently knew that sometimes a fever may be
allayed or broken by inducing perspiration. In the various tribes more
than 85 different species were known as diaphoretics. One was the sassa­fras,
Sassafras variifolium, the essential oil of which is the Oleum Sassafras
of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. The mountain tea, Solidago odora, and the
common boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, were also used for the relief
of fevers.
Because he had no knowledge of bacteria, many fevers could not be
diagnosed by the medicine man. Yet he recognized lung troubles, particu­larly
when a cough was associated with the fever. Depending upon the
region, he might prepare for pulmonary conditions a balsam decoction
82
THREE MEDICINAL PLANTS
From the bar\ and roots of the fringe- tree ( left) a decoction was made for healing
sores. The witch- hazel ( center) was the source of a lotion for sore eyes. Leaves of the
spice- bush ( right) provided a febrifuge.
from the balsam fir, Abies balsamea; a tea of the wild sarsaparilla, Aralia
nudicaulis; or sweet sage, Artemisia frigida; a brew of dried flowers of
the elderberry, Sambucus caerulea; or of the leaves and flowers of the
gum- plant, Grindclia robusta; or a preparation from the consumptive- weed,
Eriodiciyon californicum. Indians taught the missionary padres in Cali­fornia
the medicinal virtues of this latter plant, which became known as
yerba santa ( holy herb), for it was esteemed as a general tonic and an
excellent medicine for bronchial troubles. Many of the above mentioned
species were used by the school of eclectic physicians in America.
Liver and kidney ailments were diagnosed by many symptoms for which
the medicine men across the continent had more than 36 kinds of plants
as a remedy. Two hundred or more American species were used as
diuretics by the Indians and the eclectics.
83
Heart trouble was also recognized by the medicine man, but he found
very few medicines to combat this serious ailment. A tea from the steeped
leaves of the southern wild ginger, Hexastylis arifolia, and a decoction
from the roots of the daisy fleabane, Erigeron ranwsus. were both drunk
for heart trouble by the Catawba Indians, and the valuable Senega root,
Polygala Senega, which is now an official drug in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia,
was used by others to overcome this illness.
Antiseptics and Healing Agents
The medicine man was truly practical with his antiseptics, healers,
and dressings for wounds in general. His medicine bag was his " first aid
kit," ready for any emergency, from a simple mishap to a tribal war.
Having at hand many astringents which acted as antiseptics, he frequently
did the job practically and efficiently. For wounds in general he resorted
to poultices, brews and decoctions of leaves, roots, and barks. Wound
medicine was obtained from 101 different plant species. Little- buffalo-medicine
or wind- flower, Anemone canadensis, was one of these wound
medicines highly esteemed for many ills. A brew of the roots was applied
externally and taken internally, and was also used as a wash for sore
eyes. Meskwaki Indians of Wisconsin used this medicine as a remedy to
cure crossed eyes. The same tribe used a small piece of root as a lozenge
to clear the throat so that they could sing well in the medicine lodge cere­mony.
The root chewed slowly to a pulp and placed on a wound often
served as a styptic.
Another remarkable styptic was a species of puffball, Lycoperdon
gcmmatum, one of the few fungi that the Indians dared to use, since,
in general, fungi were definitely feared. The spores of the species would
merely be dusted on the bleeding wound. One of the most valuable anti­septic
styptics was the staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, the bark of which
has a puckering effect because of the tannin it contains.
Wounds that did not heal well were classed with sores, and these, in
general, were treated either by fresh plant juices, saps, tissues, barks and
leaves, or by these substances prepared in the form of poultices, salves,
or decoctions. The fringe tree, Chiona) ithus virginicus, and the leaves of
the beautiful yellow clintonia, Clintonia borealis, and of alum- root,
Heuchera americana, were among the 70 or more plant species used
on sores.
For minor cuts the " doctor" had a choice of 32 species of plants, while
for bruises he had more than half a hundred. He also had medicine for
burns and scalds, most of the 48 species so used having tannin as a basic
ingredient. One of the surprising remedies for healing burns was the
down of the fruit- spikes of the common cat- tail, Typha latifolia. The
same down added to rendered fat of the coyote was made into a plaster
to be applied to the pustules of smallpox patients.
84
Bites by insects, scorpions, dogs, and snakes were always treated by
the medicine man. The Seminole Indians used a species of iris as a healer
for alligator bites ( if the reptile did not take too big a bite). Snake
bites, in general, were treated by antidotes obtained from at least 55
different species, while rattlesnake bites were counteracted by more than
24 species, most of which are recognizable today by their common name
such as snakewort, snake- root, snake- bane, etc. The rattlesnake weed,
Echinacea angustifolia, was applied extensively by the Indians and later
by white traders as an antidote for poisonous bites, particularly by
rattlesnakes. A poultice of the leaves of the rattlesnake root, Prenanthes
alba, steeped in hot water was also considered effective.
Sedatives, Tonics, and Panaceas
Sedatives for nerves were also prescribed by the medicine man. Of
these he had, as our records show, 44 species from which he could select.
Narcotics also had their place in the medicine lodge, but their use was
mainly for the medicine man himself, for the narcotic effect to bring on
visions and contacts with the spirit world.
When the patient was convalescing, the medicine man would resort to
tonics to aid quicker recovery. We have found records of nearly 250
species that were so used. More than 100 kinds of stimulants were pre­scribed,
some to stimulate appetite, others for the heart, liver, intestines,
nervous system, respiration, stomach, and as revivers from faints, comas
and other similar conditions.
The medicine man considered more than 30 species as cure- alls. Some
of these panaceas have already been mentioned. Our common bearberry,
Arctostaphylos Uva- ursi, was one of the important medicines used to
relieve any ailment, and it was also used as a seasoner to mask the taste
of other medicines. In the National Formulary it is recognized as an
official medicine for its diuretic, tonic and astringent qualities. The
American wild mint, Mentha canadensis, was brewed into a tea for many
complaints. Another decoction was made from New Jersey tea, Ceanothus
americanus. Because the roots were matted, twisted, and knotted, they
suggested strength, and because the inner bark was colored red it sym­bolized
the intestines. Therefore this plant was looked upon as a powerful
medicine for all stomach and bowel ailments. Another panacea was the
Missouri gourd, Cucurbita foetidissima. It was said to possess special
mystic powers, so only authorized Indians dared to handle this sacred
plant, about which many stories told were colored with fatal experiences
to the careless. As a remedy for any ailment, a portion of the root from
the part corresponding in position to the affected part of the patient's
body was used. Other interesting cure- alls were the Indian hemp,
Apocynum cannabhuun; sweet cicely, Osmorhiza longistylis, and the
butterfly- weed or pleurisy- root, Asclepias tuberosa.
85
Many questions have been asked on the value of Indian herbs. Some
of these questions are: What has the medicine man given us? Are his
medicinal herbs of any value? What of his primitive practice, his form
of diagnosis? Has this strange mystic technique contributed something
to the knowledge of man ?
Most of his medicines were remedies and as remedies they were not
necessarily good curatives. Civilization has, however, accepted many of
his herbs, and the best of them are now being utilized by the white man, as
proved by our record of 45 species that have been at one time or still are
official medicines in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary. We
have already mentioned a few of these official drugs. Others of
interest are:
Common Name
Male Fern
May Apple
Wild Cherry
Virginia Snakeroot
Sweet Gum
American White
Hellebore
Golden Seal
Juniper
Latin Name Present- day Use
U. S. PHARMACOPOEIA
Dryoptcris
FUix- mas
Podophyllum
pellatnm
Prunus virginiana
( P. serotina)
Aristolochia
Serpentaria
Liauidambar
Styraciflua
Veratrum viride
Vermifuge
Emetic and cathartic
Bark for bitter tonic,
stimulant and seda­tive,
berries to mask
med. flavor.
Stimulant, tonic for
stomach ; diaphoretic
valuable for fevers.
Antiseptic, disinfectant
especially for cuts.
Cardiac and muscular
sedative.
NATIONAL FORMULARY
Hydrastis
canadensis
Juniperus
communis
Tonic and catarrhal
conditions
Essential oil, diuretic
and aromatic
Indian Use
Vermifuge
Insecticide, snake bites,
dropsy and rheu­matism.
Bark for coughs and
colds; inner bark as
a mask for med.
flavor.
Brew for stomach
pains and fevers.
Cuts and bruises ( very
valuable medicine in
Mexico since earli­est
times).
Wounds and aches,
headaches.
Remedy for eczema;
inhalant for catarrh.
Diuretic, flavor and
asthma.
It is surprising to note in the above list the similarity of Indian reme­dies
compared with today's official use of the herbs. With few exceptions
they are alike. Eclectics, however, used a great many more of the native
plants; in fact, we estimate that they used at least 300 different species,
or about 17% of the total number of medicinal herbs that were used by
the American Indians.
The white man still has much to learn about the uses of plants from
his predecessors on the North American continent. While some of the
Indian's remedies which were adopted early have recently been dropped
from official use in medicine, largely because of the development of syn­thetic
products, others, when they are tested, may yet prove efficacious.
As the white man learns about these plants, he will be wise if he also
adopts the Indian's belief that the " medicine man" is all- powerful and that
only he has the knowledge and right to determine which plant shall be
used to cure an ailment. So when the white man becomes ill, let him
remember the Indian, who never prescribed for himself, but who faith­fully
followed the word of his tribal " doctor."
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
The
of forthcoming events at
New York Botanical Garden
INTERNATIONAL FLOWER SHOW
" Food and Drug Plants of the North American Indian" is the subject
of the Botanical Garden's exhibit this year at the International Flower
Show in Grand Central Palace, New York City, March 16- 21. More than
100 kinds of plants are to be shown, accompanied by labels that describe
their uses. The material selected for the exhibit is based on the research
of Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Wittrock, who have also contributed the two leading
articles to this issue of the Journal.
HERB CONFERENCE
April 7 and 8 in the Museum Building
Open to the public without charge
MRS. HELEN MORGENTHAU FOX, Chairman
PROGRAM
TUESDAY, 10: 30 a. m.
Address of Welcome DR. W I L L I AM J. ROBBINS, Director, New York Botanical Garden
The Back- Yard Herb Garden MRS. HELEN M. FOX, Advisory Council, N. Y. B. G.
The Use of Herbs in Cooking Miss EDITH M. BARBER, Food Editor, N. Y. Sun
Herbs in Cosmetics Miss MALA RUBINSTEIN, Rep. Mme. Helena Rubinstein
Herbs in Perfumery MR. CHRISTIAN WIGHT, Perfumer- Chemist
TUESDAY, 2: 30 p. m.
China's Contribution in Medicinal Herbs DR. W. M. PORTERFIELD, U. S. Dept. Agri.
Spices— Past, Present, and Future MR. M. L. VAN NORDEN, Amer. Spice Trade Asso.
WEDNESDAY, 10: 30 a. m.
Address of Welcome DR. W I L L I AM J. ROBBINS, Director, New York Botanical Garden
North American Indian Customs with Medicinal Plants
MR. G. L. WITTROCK, Curator of the Herbarium, N. Y. B. G.
87
S. America's Contribution in Medicinal Herbs DR. H. K. SVENSON, Brooklyn B. G.
Motion Picture— The Production of Essential Oils in the Western Hemisphere
Shown through the courtesy of Fritzsche Bros., Inc.
WEDNESDAY, 2: 30 p. m.
Commercial Production of European Drug Plants in America
DR. W. J. BONISTEEL. Professor of Botany, Fordham University
Some Important Drug Plants and their Role in Medicine
DR. C. C. LIEB, College of Pharmacy, Columbia University
Summary of the Conference DR. W. j . BONISTEEL, Professor of Botany, Fordham U.
Luncheon and tea in which herbs will be featured will be served on both days by
the Advisory Council of the Nczv York Botanical Garden and the New York Unit of
the Herb Society of America.
Some of the papers from this two- day conference will be published in zvhole or in
part in forthcoming numbers of this Journal.
SPRING LECTURES
The spring series of free Saturday afternoon lectures at the New York
Botanical Garden will open March 21 with a talk to be given in Chinese
costume by Mr. George Kin Leung, who will describe the garden at his
home in China and give comments on Chinese flowers. The following
Saturday Dr. W. H. Camp will speak on his plant hunting expedition in
Oaxaca. The complete schedule of lectures will be published in the next
Journal. Meanwhile, a card announcing the subjects and speakers will
be mailed free to any person requesting one.
APRIL JOURNAL
More information on wild plants of North America that can be used
for food will be given in an article entitled " Edible Weeds of Wayside
and Woods" written especially for this Journal by Helen Morgenthau Fox.
Also in the April Journal will appear a continuation of the series of
illustrated articles on succulent plants being written by E. J. Alexander of
the Botanical Garden's staff.
Notices and Reviews of Recent < Rooks
( All publications mentioned here may be consulted in the Library of The New
York Botanical Garden or may be purchased on order through the Library.)
Unsung Benefactor of school readers to be concerned more with
Modern Society ^ e contributions of great discoverers and 3 inventors rather than the antics of hero
RUBBER'S GOODYEAR. Adoiph warriors, be they Greek, Roman
Messner, otherwise.
' ' Here in the life of Goodyear, as in the
Whenever I read a book of this nature lives of so many other unsung benefactors
tlie thought invariably occurs to me, of modern society, we find those qualities
how desirable it would be for grade- of persistence, foresight and sacrifice
which have been associated with the real
benefactors of mankind. The opprobrium
of the debtor's prison, the humiliation of
bankruptcy, ill- health, sorrows and
poverty were Goodyear's rewards for dis­covering
the vulcanization process in the
handling of rubber. Another, undoubted­ly,
would have made the discovery, had
he not, but many years might then have
elapsed before that accomplishment which
taught how to overcome its brittleness in
winter and its odorous gumminess in
summer. Simple things, but it took one
man's lifetime to show the world, and
in this volume is the story of his labors.
E. H. FULLING.
Herbs in the Kitchen
York, 1941.
Barrows & Co., New
Leonie dc Sounin's book will prove an
enchanting introduction to herbs. Its
" magic" will enthrall even those who
already think they know their subject.
The author's recollections of years of
fragrance in garden, kitchen and " grand­mother's
laboratory" in Austria, where
she was born and brought up, stimulated
her in her new home in this country to
experiment with herbs and adjust recipes
to the facilities and requirements of
today. Her enthusiasm is contagious ; and
her emphasis on the need for individual
experimentation should be taken to heart.
While some of the menus are imprac­tical
for the average marketer, her
chapter on vegetables should prove a
boon and an inspiration to all who are
anxious to reduce their food budget.
Simple gardening instructions conclude
the volume, pleasantly interspersed with
additional comments on the use of each
herb.
MARCIA GARRICK.
Notes, News, and Comment
Correction. The caption for the illus­tration
of Viburnum tomentosum var.
sterile, appearing on page 41 of the Feb­ruary
Journal, referred to the species,
Viburnum tomentosum. and not to the
variety which was pictured. This variety
bears no fruit,
Visitors. Vicki Baum and her son,
Wolfgang Lert, have visited the conserva­tories
and library at the Garden several
times recently to gather some authentic
botanical and horticultural material for
Miss Baum's next novel.
Rupert C. Barneby, amateur botanist
of Beverly Hills, Calif., left for the
Coast after spending six weeks in the
Britton Herbarium studying the genus
Astragalus.
Prof. Marie- Victorin, Director of the
Montreal Botanical Garden, stopped on
Feb, 16 at the New York Botanical Gar­den,
where he consulted with J. P.
Carabia on the flora of Cuba, on his way
to Cuba for a trip scheduled to last for
several months.
Other visitors to the Garden this past
month included Frank Egler from the
New York State College of Forestry at
Syracuse University; Dr. Anna Mary
Carpenter of Bethlehem, Pa.; Carl Witt-ner
from the Botany Department at Yale,
with Mrs. Wittner; Dr. and Mrs. H. N.
Wheeler of Washington, D. C.; Miss A.
Kogon, a former student from the Sor-bonne;
Dr. and Mrs. Charles J. Lyon of
Dartmouth; and Mrs. E. R. Sansome of
England who is at present in the Depart­ment
of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor
where she is studying the genetic physi­ology
of the pink bakery mold, Neuro­spora.
Luncheon. On Feb. 9, 24 members of
the Advisory Council of the New York
Botanical Garden held a luncheon in the
Members' Room. After the business
meeting Mrs. Jerome W. Coombs gave a
talk on Alaska.
Art from Flowers. Textile designs
which have been made from flowers found
in the greenhouses and in library books
at the New York Botanical Garden have
been on view since mid- November in the
display rooms of Charles Bloom, Inc.,
in New York City. Seven Pan- American
plants are represented: Stetsonia for
Argentina, Calathea for Brazil, the coffee
plant for Costa Rica, Gunnera for Ecua­dor,
banana plant for Panama, Beau-montia
grandiflora for Honduras, and
Lefcasti for Guatemala. With the ma­terials
are shown the original paintings
made by artists who worked for several
weeks at the New York Botanical
Garden.
T H E N E W Y O R K B O T A N I C A L GARDEN
Officers
JOSEPH R. SWAN, President
HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice- president
JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice- president
ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, Treasurer
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, Secretary
E. C. AUCHTER
HENRY F. DU PONT
MARSHALL FIELD
MRS. ELON HUNTINGTON
HOOKER
PIERRE J AY
Elective Managers
CLARENCE McK. LEWIS
HENRY LOCKHART, JR.
D. T. MACDOUGAL
E. D. MERRILL
ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY
H. HOBART PORTER
FRANCIS E. POWELL, JR.
MRS. HAROLD I. PRATT
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS
A. PERCY SAUNDERS
Ex- Officio Managers
FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA, Mayor of the City of New York
JAMES MARSHALL, President of the Board of Education
ROBERT MOSES, Park Commissioner
Appointive Managers
By the Torrey Botanical Club
H. A. GLEASON
By Columbia University
MARSTON T. BOGERT MARCUS M. RHOADES
R. A. HARPER SAM F . TRELEASE
T H E S T A FF
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS, P H . D . , Sc. D.
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D .
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE
A. B. STOUT, P H . D .
FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D . , S C . D .
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D .
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M.
H. W. RICKETT, P H . D.
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, P H . D .
ELIZABETH C. HALL, A. B., B. S.
FLEDA GRIFFITH
PERCY WILSON
ROBERT S. WILLIAMS
Director
Assistant Director and Head Curator
Assistant Director
Curator of Education and Laboratories
Curator
Plant Pathologist
M. D. Bibliographer Emeritus
Assistant Bibliographer
Associate Curator
Librarian
Artist and Photographer
Research Associate
Research Associate in Bryology
E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator and Curator of the Local Herbarium
W. H. CAMP, P H . D.
CLYDE CHANDLER, P H . D.
ROSALIE WEIKERT
FREDERICK KAVANAGH, M. A.
JOHN H. PIERCE, M. A.
CAROL H. WOODWARD, A. B.
THOMAS H. EVERETT, N. D. HORT.
G. L. WITTROCK. A. M.
OTTO DEGENER. M. S.
A. J. GROUT, P H . D .
ROBERT HAGELSTEIN
JOSEPH F. BURKE
B. A. KRUKOFF
Assistant Curator
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Editorial Assistant
Horticulturist
Custodian of the Herbarium
Collaborator in Hazvaiian Botany
Honorary Curator of Mosses
Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes
Honorary Curator of the Diatomaceae
Honorary Curator of Economic Botany
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM Honorary Curator. Iris and Narcissus Collections
ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
A. C PFANDER Assistant Superintendent
To reach the Botanical Garden, take the Eighth Avenue Subway to Bedford Park
Blvd., the Third Avenue Elevated to the Bronx Park station, or the New York Central
to the Botanical Garden station; or drive up the Grand Concourse then east on Mosholu
Pkwy,, or, coming from Westchester, turn west at the end of Bronx River Pkwy.
coming from Westchester,
THE CORPORATION OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
The New York Botanical Garden was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature of
the State of New York in 1891. The Act of Incorporation provides, among other things, for
a self- perpetuating body of incorporators, who meet annually to elect members of the Board of
Managers. They also elect new members of their own body, the present roster of which is
Ui'vcn below.
The Advisory Council consists of 12 or more women who are elected by the Board. By
custom, they are also elected to the Corporation. Officers are: Mrs. Robert H. Fife, Chairman;
Mrs. Elon Huntington Hooker, First Vice- Chairman; Mrs. William A. Lockwood, Second Vice-chairman;
Mrs. Nelson B. Williams, Recording Secretary; Mrs. Townsend Scudder, Corresponding
Secretary; and Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg, Treasurer.
Arthur M. Anderson
Mrs. Arthur M. Anderson
Mrs. George Arents, Jr.
George Arents, Jr.
Vincent Astor
E. C. Auchter
Dr. Raymond F. Bacon
Prof. L. H Bailey
Stephen Baker
Henry de Forest Baldwin
Sherman Baldwin
Mrs. James Barnes
Mrs. William Felton Barrett
Prof. Charles P. Berkey
Prof Marston T. Bogert
Prof. William J. Bonisteel
George P. Brett
Mrs. Richard de Wolfe Brixe
Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley
Dr. Nicholas M. Butler
Prof. Gary N. Calkins
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie
Miss Mabel Choate
Miss E. Mabel Clark
W. R. Coe
Richard C. Colt
Mrs. Jerome W. Coombs
Mrs. William Redmond Cro
Mrs. C. I DeBevoise
Mrs. Thomas M. Debevoise
Edward C. Delafield
Mrs. John Ross Dclafield
Rev. Dr H. M. Denslow
Julian Detmer
Mrs Charles D. Dickey
Mrs. Walter Douglas
Mrs . John W. Draper
Henry F. du Pont
Mrs. Mosee W. Faitoute
Marshall Field
William B O Field
Mrs. Robert H. Fife
Mrs Henry J Fisher
Harry Harkness Flagler
Mrs. Mortimer J. Fox
Childs Frick
Dr. H. A. Gleason
Mrs. Frederick A. Godley
Mrs. George McM. Godley
Prof. R. A. Harper
Prof. Tracy E. Hazen
Mrs, William F. Hencken
Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn
Capt. Henry B. Heylman
Mrs. Elon H. Hooker
Mrs. Clement Houghton
Archer M. Huntington
Pierre Jay
Mrs. Walter Jennings
Mrs. Alfred G. Kay
Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg
Mrs. Warren Kinney
H. R. Kunhardt, Jr.
Mrs. Barent Lefferts
Clarence McK. Lewis
Henry Lockhart, Jr.
Mrs. William A. Lockwood
Dr D. T. MacDougal
Mrs. David Ives Mackie
Mrs. H. Edward Manville
Parker McCollester
Louis E McFadden
Mrs. John R McGinley
Dr E. D. Merrill
lohn L. Merrill
Roswell Miller, Jr.
Mrs. Roswell Miller, Jr.
Mrs. Roswell Miller, Sr.
George M. Moffett
H. de la Montagne
Col. Robert H. Montgomery
BarrinRton Moore
Mrs, William H. Moore
J. Picrpont Morgan
Dr, Robert T, Morris
B. Y. Morrison
Mrs, Augustus G. Paine
Mrs. James R. Parsons
Rufus L. Patterson
Mrs. Wheeler H. Peckham
Mrs. George W. Perkins
Howard Phipps
James R. Pitcher
Rutherford Piatt
H Hobart Porter
Francis E. Powell, Jr.
Mrs. Harold I. Pratt
Mrs. Henry St. C. Putnam
Stanley G. Ranger
Johnston L. Redmond
Ogden Mills Reid
Prof, Marcus M. Rhoades
Dr. William J. Robbins
Prof. A, Percy Saunders
John M. Schiff
Mrs. Henry F. Schwarz
Mrs. Arthur Hoyt Scott
Mrs. Arthur H, Scribner
Mrs. Townsend Scudder
Mrs. Samuel Seabury
Mrs. Cuthrie Shaw
Prof, Edmund W, Sinnott
Mrs. Samuel Sloan
Edgar B. Stern
Nathan Straus
Mrs. Theron G. Strong
Mrs. Arthur H. Sulzberger
Joseph R. Swan
Prof. Sam F, Trelease
Mrs. Harold McL. Turner
Mrs. Antonie P. Voislawsky
Allen Wardwell
Nelson M. Wells
Mrs Nelson B. Williams
Mrs. Percy H. Williams
Bronson Winthrop
Grenville L. Winthrop
John C. Wister
Richardson Wrisht

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JOURNAL
OF
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
VOL. 43
No. 507
MARCH
1 9 4 2
PAGES
57— 88
JOURNAL OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
CAROL H. WOODWARD, Editor
USABLE PLANTS
THERE was a time— before the oceans were crossed by sailing vessels—
when each great land- mass had only those food plants that grew there
naturally. But for the last four centuries the plants of the Americas
( corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and others) have been known and cultivated in
Europe and Asia, while the rice and wheat, the cabbages, beets, and turnips
of Eurasia have been grown and eaten in the western hemisphere.
But now there comes a time when each continent is again restricted,
not only in its sources of food, but also in the plants that it uses for
spices, flavorings, medicines, perfumes and cosmetics, as well as a great
number of essential plant products, among them the rubber which goes into
tires and the coconut which contributes to nitro- glycerine.
Instead of importing their products, as formerly, North America can
learn to raise many plants from other continents. Many green things from
the wild, heretofore unnoticed, can be brought into the economic sphere.
Much new information is needed about both cultivated and native plants
and their possibilities.
During March and April the New York Botanical Garden in several
ways will promote a practical knowledge about usable plants. This month,
at the International Flower Show, the Garden is staging an exhibit of
more than 100 of the plants that were used for food and medicine by the
Indians of North America. Immediately after Easter there will be a
two- day conference organized by the Botanical Garden to tell the story of
the major contributions of each continent toward providing useful plants
to the rest of the world, and to present the problem America has to face
in furnishing its own supplies of these plants or locating satisfactory
substitutes.
Every person who visits the Garden's exhibit at the International Flower
Show ( March 16- 21) or who attends the Herb Conference ( April 7 and 8)
will be impressed by the practical lessons in this exhibit and program.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
March 1942
T H E SHADBUSH IN FLOWER Cover Photograph Helen M. Woodward
( The fruits of Amelanchier canadensis were an important
food for the North American Indian.)
FOOD PLANTS OF T H E INDIANS Marion A. 6? G. L. Wittrock 57
WILD PLANTS USED IN COOKERY Milton A. Hopkins 71
MEDICINES FROM PLANTS Marion A. £? G. L. Wittrock 76
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS AT T H E GARDEN 86
NOTICES AND REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 87
NOTES, NEWS, AND COMMENT 88
The Journal is published monthly by The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Park, New York,
N. Y. Entered at the Post Office in New York, N. Y., as second- class matter. Annual subscription
$ 1.00. Single copies IS cents. Free to members of the Garden.
JOURNAL
of
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
VOL. 43 MARCH 1942 No. 507
Food ^ Plants Of The Indians
Vegetables, Grains, Fruits, Seasonings
Gleaned from the Wild by the
North American Natives
By Marion A. and G. L. Wittrock
WERE we in the woods or in the open country miles and miles from
civilization, could we exist for a week without our customary food,
or live for a year without seeds and the means for cultivating plants ?
Stranded under these circumstances, would we necessarily starve? Ques­tions
of this nature have often been asked by members of groups tramping
over the country. In some instances hikers have actually been in a situa­tion
when a bit of knowledge of our native plant life and its possibilities
would have prevented uncomfortable moments.
Let us go into the woods or open country and, observing what could be
used for food, note our possible chance of existence.
We know that the North American Indians were dependent to a large
extent on the plants that could be gathered from the wild, for while they
sometimes raised corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes and sunflowers,* these
did not always provide enough or sufficiently varied food, and of course
* When Columbus landed in America, the Indians in what is now the United States
were cultivating the five major varieties of corn classed as flint, flour, dent, sweet,
and pop. They were careful selectors of seed for all of their crops. Omaha tribes
had as many as 48 varieties of pumpkins and squashes, and they learned early that
varieties hybridized, sometimes ruining a crop if specially desired strains were planted
too close together. Indian plant culture, however, was by no means on the high-production
basis we now pursue in agriculture. There was no plowing or cultivation,
no tilling of the soil. The Indian cleared a small plot and planted his kernels of
corn in hills. Between these hills he sowed seeds of the sunflower, pumpkin, squash,
and bean, the sunflower, of which the seeds were eaten, serving as protection for the
growing corn and as a screen against the ravaging crows.
The corn story is the story of the American Indian. Besides more than 200
different recipes, there are records of the use of com in medicines, beverages, dyes,
ceremonies, and the arts. The cultivation of corn was an indicator, of the state of
cultural progress of a tribe.
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no crops at all were attempted by the nomadic tribes. So the Indian found
many wild plants to satisfy his palate, and those same plants are still
growing in North American woods and fields.
Could we exist on these native plants? Yes, if we are not too fastidious
and will accept what could be eaten. Of the 3,500 different species known
to have been used by the Indians in America either for foods, beverages,
fibers, medicines, dyes or utensils, nearly half were used for food.
A number of trees and shrubs provided nuts; many herbaceous plants
gave greens and other types of vegetables; edible fruits came from in­numerable
plant sources; and many bulbs and tubers which are passed
unnoticed today provided tasty vegetables, seasonings, or nourishing
ground meal. In the absence of wheat, the Indians used the seed of many
other grass- plants for flour.
Nuts for Nourishment
But perhaps the most important native food plant of the Indian was the
oak. Meal made of parched acorns that have been leeched with water to
remove the injurious tannin has a delicious flavor and is nutritious. In­dians
long ago discovered the value of acorn meal, and they learned early
how to remove the tannin by placing ground acorns in a fine- meshed
basket in a stream where the water could trickle through continuously.
After nine or ten days, the leeched meal would become pink in color and
sweet in taste. When made into " pancakes" and fried in animal grease or
vegetable oil, it provided a tasty and wholesome dish.
The trees with the sweetest acorns are the California live oak, Quercus
agrifolia, and the basket or cow oak, Q. Michauxu. of the Atlantic States,
but any acorn may be used for food if the tannin is removed.
Indians ate the nuts of more than 40 other species of trees and shrubs,
as well as the nut- like seed of the water chinkapin, or American lotus,
Nelumbium luteum. They roasted the nuts, extracted oil by crushing the
meat, boiling and cooling it, and skimming the oil off the top of the water,
or ground them into meal for soups, mush, even puddings— the last being
made from the Indian nut, or pinon, Pi mis edulis. Of course the 43 species
known do not occur within the boundary of any one woodland. Our
eastern woods that we have entered with a hope for food would reward us
with the American beech, Fagus grandifolia; several species of the hickory,
Carya; the black walnut, Juglans nigra, and the butternut, / . cinerea. And
we must not forget the hazelnuts. Cory/ us americana and C. cornuta.
Unfortunately, these are all seasonal foods which may not be ripe when
we are wandering in the woods, say in the spring or summer. We must,
however, keep this form of food in mind to store for winter use, as did
the Indians. Had we the Indian knowledge of the woodland and were
we on the alert, in the springtime we could possibly find caches of beech­nuts
that had been stored by the deer mouse. This little creature usually
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The yellow- flowered American lotus or water chinkapin furnished food with its nut'} i\ e
seeds, also its tuberous roots.
gathers from 4 to 8 quarts of the small nut and it might have failed to use
its winter supply. Indian women would find these caches and rob the
storehouse, but would always leave a handful of corn in return. Would
we be as appreciative?
Hundreds of Kinds of Fruits
Fruits are our next possible source of food. It is surprising to observe
that the Indians enjoyed fresh berries and berry- like fruits from at least
278 species of plants that occur in the United States. Besides eating ber­ries
raw, they boiled, baked, or dried them, crushed them for cakes and
mush, or mixed the fruit with seed meal for flavor. And many berries
were used for beverages, seasoning, spices, and in medicine. More than
50 kinds were dried for winter use, one, the service- berry, Amelanchier
canadensis, being pressed into loaves weighing from 10 to 15 pounds. It
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was described by Lewis of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition as most
delicious when served as a winter food, eaten raw or broken into soups.
One of our common blueberries, Vaccinium pensylvanicum, was dried
in the sun as we dry raisins or currants for winter use. Some tribes ate
the dried berries with dried sweet corn sweetened with maple sugar. This
recipe was the famous " Menominee dish." The Flambeau Ojibwe cooked
the dried berries with wild rice or venison. They also made a delicious
sweet bread of the dried fruit. But not all of the berries eaten were so
palatable. We challenge anyone to claim that he enjoys the woody, bitter,
coarse berries of the carrion- flower, Smilax herbacca, yet Indians ate them
raw or cooked, besides using them in medicine.
Naturally, the native blackberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries
and strawberries were relished by the Indians, but let us turn to fruits not
popularly classed as berries.
We find that the Indians throughout the United States picked fruit, in
addition to berries, from 212 species of plants. These fruits were eaten
raw, boiled, made into meal for bread, baked into cakes, dried for winter
use, candied, used for flavors, cooked as a gruel or mush, parched, roasted,
and also cooked and served as a sauce. We all enjoy fruits and consider
them necessary to health, but to the Indians they were sometimes even
more important. The fruits of many cactus species will serve as an illus­tration.
When the prickly pear or tuna ripened, southwestern tribes would
gather and celebrate for weeks before the actual harvest, for this period
began their calendar year. After proper rituals the new year would begin;
then the Indians would work feverishly harvesting the fruit.
In our section, here in the East, we may gather wild plums, cherries,
hawthorns, persimmons and many other fruits.
Fruit pods, especially of members of the Pea family, may also be used
as food. Our records show that the pods of 14 species were eaten raw,
while the fruit pods of more than 15 species were cooked as a vegetable
or potherb. Perhaps the most interesting of this group is the mesquite,
Prosopis glandulosa, which grows in the Southwest. This yellow fruit
consists of a bean- like pod 6 to 8 inches long containing numerous hard
dark seeds between which there is a considerable quantity of yellow,
farinaceous substance which is sweet and agreeable to the taste. Indians
of the Mojave Desert section pounded this yellow pulp in their crude
mortars after removing the seeds and husks, then made it into a kind of
cake that resembled cornmeal in appearance and taste.
The discarded seeds were ground into a meal which was baked into a
kind of bread or prepared as a mush. The pod of the screw- bean, Prosopis
pubescens, was used in a similar way.
Flowers Fried and Boiled
Of the many flowers found in nature, how many do we use as food?
Those that are grown in vegetable gardens today are all of Eurasian
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origin— cauliflower, broccoli, and artichoke ( of which we eat the involucral
bracts of the flower in the bud stage). The Indians, however, ate raw
the flowers of 24 species of wild plants ; boiled the flowers of many others ;
fried the flowers of the beautiful redbud, Cercis canadensis; boiled the
buds of the common milkweed, Asclepias syriaca, and of Spanish bayonet,
Yucca baccata; and cooked as potherbs the inflorescence of 15 other species
in the bud stage.
Leaves for Greens and Potherbs
This brings up the question of greens, or potherbs made of leaves and
shoots. The many plants used by the Indians make indeed an imposing
list. It seems that anything green, tender, and not too fibrous was used.
More than a dozen different kinds of leaves were eaten raw, others were
used as relishes, the leaves of 59 species were boiled as we prepare spinach,
and 14 kinds were boiled with meat. Species of clover, Trifolium, were
foraged by California tribes. Indians were often observed in the fields
eating the plants raw, though they did have a pouch of salt from which they
would occasionally take a pinch to give a bit of flavor— and incidentally
aid digestion.
The common milkweed was gathered in early spring and boiled as a
potherb, as were the young plants of the cow parsnip, Heraclcum lanatum,
which they were apparently better able to distinguish than the average
white man can from the poisonous members of this family. The Indians
boiled the whole plant of various species of Oxalis; the lovely plant of
the marsh marigold, Caltha palustris; the pleasant, succulent stem and
leaves of the western miner's lettuce, Monfla perfoliata, and of scores of
others, including the very young leaves and shoots of the pokeweed,
Phytolacca decandra, a plant which becomes poisonous when it matures.
We find not one section throughout the United States that failed to have
at least a few plants for use as a potherb to the Indian.
Greens that were gathered from the wild, like those above, were sea­sonal
foods, used when available to give added flavor to meats. Seeds,
roots, and tubers were taken more seriously because this class of food
could be stored for winter use.
Native Grains and Other Seed Foods
Besides that most important of seed plants, maize or Indian corn,
which was cultivated, the Indians depended on the seeds of many wild
plants for food.
We are so accustomed to the use of our Eurasian grain plants, such as
wheat, barley, rye, millet, rice and oats, that we do not accept the possi­bility
of other grass species that could be used as grains. Without question
we are now cultivating the best grain plants that nature can offer, but
there are many we could use were we patient enough to harvest them.
Wars were fought over wild rice fields in northern United States and Canada. The
grains from the heads of Zizania aquatica. ( shown here approximately Y+ natural size)
were one of the most important Indian foods in the regions where they grew.
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Either the grain of native grasses is too small, the hull or chaff too difficult
to remove, or the harvest too small in return for the labor expended, to
rouse an interest in this source of food.
Wild rice, Zizania aquatica, however, is now becoming a grain of the
market. It was an important food of the Indians, particularly in the
northern parts of the United States. This grass has many advantages over
our cereals, particularly because it renews itself annually by seed. No
planting is required, no cultivation, only harvesting, storing the seed, and,
for the Indians, protecting the stand from other tribes. The Great Lakes
Region was the seat of many tribal wars for possession of the rice fields.
The grain was highly prized by the Indians, who called it in general
" good berry," or " manomin," or " manoman," from which the Menominee
tribe derives its name. Indians would gather the grain by canoe, pulling
the reeds over into the boat to thresh the heads. Though it is a very
laborious task, one man, it has been observed, could reap as much as
780 pounds in a season. Forty pounds a day was considered a good harvest.
Returning to shore with their load of grain, the Indians would parch but
not scorch the seed, then trample over the grain to thresh the hull, and
finally winnow the seed in the air to remove the chaff. The parching process
dried out excess moisture and destroyed insect eggs that might have been
in the rice. Thus safe storage was assured.
Wild rice is restricted in its distribution, so it was known to only a
limited number of tribes, but another grass that was used by the North
American Indians is so cosmopolitan that it has been found growing wild
throughout the temperate zones of the world, and on nearly every con­tinent
it has played an important part in the lives of primitive people.
Civilization ignores the plant other than its possible use as a sand binder.
We refer to the common reed grass or cane grass, Phragmites communis,
which is familiar to all New Yorkers who cross the Hudson River into
New Jersey, for acres of it are visible from automobile or train. Besides
being useful for thatching, weaving, and making arrow shafts, this tall
perennial grass is a source of food throughout the year. During the
winter the rhizomes can be dug and boiled as potatoes; in the early spring
the shoots that push up from the marsh land can be prepared as we cook
asparagus; the partly unfolded leaves can be cooked as a pot herb; finally,
the large panicle oi grain can be harvested for seed. The kernel is small
and is coated with a dull red hull which is most difficult to remove, but
the seed contains nutritious food materials rated between wheat and rice.
The Indians did not remove the hull, but cooked the whole grain into a
reddish gruel which was wholesome as a food, though not too appetizing
in appearance.
Frequently the Indians ground together a mixture of seeds from several
kinds of plants, and the Spanish word " pinole" has been adopted through­out
the country as the name for this combination of seed food. Pinole was
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either eaten raw, mixed with water and eaten uncooked, boiled into a
gruel, or added to water in very small quantities to serve as a thirst-quencher.
To the grasses were added seeds of certain members of the
Goosefoot, Amaranth, Buckwheat, Loasa, Mint, and Composite families,
the normal mixture consisting of three to five different kinds plus enough
corn meal to give it body.
Seeds of many of our native plants could be used as food were we
forced to ward off hunger or had we but the patience to gather them. We
naturally would have to know the plants, but we would be fairly safe if
we were to gather only the seeds of grasses. Many of them have delicious
flavors that would make our bread and cakes the envy of a chef. The
Indians boiled the seeds of 26 species as we do rice; of others they made
meal from which they prepared delicious cakes usually sweetened with
honey or maple sugar. They found ten kinds of plants that they could
use as popcorn; and others for gruel or mush, for seasonings and flavors,
for roasting or parching, and 90 kinds of which they made meal, even
from some a fine flour. The imposing number of species used would cer­tainly
give us our daily bread, our necessary starch for food. While these
records represent plants throughout the United States, we feel certain
that a few of the species may be found in any one locality across the
country. As we wander through the woods, its margins, along the streams,
beside lakes, we could hardly keep from tramping over possible food.
Edible Roots and Other Underground Parts
Most of these seed- plants we would find in late summer or autumn, but
if we are caught in the woods say in winter time, we still could survive
because of the many roots, tubers, and bulbs that are edible and even
palatable.
Bulbs and corms were highly relished by the Indians. We naturally
think first of onions, and the Indians enjoyed all the native species, eating
not only the bulb but the shoot. Chicago derives its name from the wild
garlic, Allium canadense, a species of onion formerly common along the
banks of the Chicago River, particularly where the center of the city, from
Michigan Boulevard westward, now is located. The banks of the river
were covered with this strong- smelling plant, and the Winnebago Indian
would come from afar to gather the SHIKAKO'AK, the " wild weed" ( also
called " skunk weed") at SHIKAK'O, " the place where the skunk weed
grows."
Of the bulbs we find that more than 35 species were eaten raw, 21
species baked or roasted, 19 species boiled; and many prepared as a meal
for bread and cakes, or dried for winter use, served as relishes, used as
seasoning, boiled for soups, and steamed.
Many of the bulbous plants are ornamental enough to be used in horti­culture
today. Who has not admired the beautiful mariposa lily, sego lily,
Known today only in horticulture { or as wild flowers to hunt in spring and early
summer,) Brodiaea, Camassia, and Dadecatheon, or shooting star, were sought by the
Indians for their edible underground parts.
and star tulip— all species of Calochortus? The butterfly mariposa, Calo-chortus
venustus, was highly esteemed by the Indians for its sweet corms.
Sego lily, Calochortus Nuttallii, the state flower of Utah, was a delicious
food for them and also believed a common article of food among the first
Mormons in Utah. The biscuit- root or camass, Camassia esculenta, has
been considered an important article of diet among all western Indian
tribes. Another western species, the California hyacinth or grassnut,
Brodiaea capitata, is both beautiful as a flower and good as a food. And
many other species of Brodiaea were used. Coming east we could use
bulbs and corms of species of Trillium; of the spring- beauty, Claytonia
virginica; the dog- tooth violet, Erythronium americanum; and many others.
The common jack- in- the- pulpit, Arisacma triphyllum t was considered
an excellent food and was used so extensively by Indians in the New
England states that it became known as the Indian turnip. We know the
fiery taste of the corm if we bite into it, but once it is boiled thoroughly
the needle- shaped calcium oxalate crystals are dissolved and the turnip
becomes most palatable. We find this important plant employed more than
thirty different ways by the Indians.
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IMPORTANT PRIMITIVE FOOD PLANTS IN NORTH AMERICA
Upper left: Young shoots of po\ eweed, or sco\ e, were coo\ ed in spring. Upper right:
The tubers of the arrowhead were widely used by Indian tribes. Lower left: The thick
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Of even greater usefulness was another member of the same family, the
Virginia tuckahoe or arrow- arum, Peltandra virginica. This species is
found in shallow waters of the Atlantic states from Canada to Florida. The
raw flesh of the compact, tuber- like cluster of roots is exceedingly acrid
and poisonous, and the same fiery sensation is experienced biting into it as
into the corm of the jack- in- the- pulpit. The Indians, however, discovered
how to make this plant a valuable food by heating or roasting the under­ground
portion by the following method: A deep pit was dug and lined
with stones; a fire was built in the pit, and when the stones were hot, the
embers were removed and the 5- to 6- pound clusters of roots were placed
in the pit, covered with earth, and kept there for two days. In this way
they would be " cured" of their unpleasant character and become good
food when dried and ground into meal.
The Sioux Indians boiled the rhizomes of the attractive butterfly- weed
of the roadsides, Asclepias tuberosa, and also cooked the young seed- pods
with buffalo meat, while the Delaware tribe ate the shoots of this plant
as we eat asparagus.
The cat- tails, Typha latifolia and 7'. angustifolia, were also important
plants to the Indians, for the rhizomes can be dug at any time and
prepared as a food. They consist of an almost solid core of starch, which
was dried and ground into meal. Analysis shows that the flour contains
about the same amount of protein as corn meal, but that it has less fat. It
could be substituted for cornstarch in puddings.
A tuber of special interest is developed late in the fall at the end of the
rhizome of the wappatoo or common arrowhead, Sagittaria latifolia, which
grows in wet places from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Canada to Mexico.
Lewis and Clarke reported the merits of this potato- like staple, and noted
that it was used in commerce by Indians along the Columbia River in
Oregon. An Indian woman would wade into the water waist deep, if
necessary, and with her toes would loosen the tubers from the mud and
break them away from the long slender rhizomes. They would rise to the
surface, from where they were easily placed in her canoe. Roasted or
boiled, this tuber becomes soft, palatable, and digestible.
The ground- nut, Apios tuberosa, can be used as a spring vegetable by
simply gathering and cooking the young seedlings, and the pod, in late
summer, contains a few peas that are wholesome. But the important part
of the plant is the chain of swollen knobs that develop on the roots in
the autumn, sometimes attaining the size of a pullet's egg by the time
they are ready to eat after two or three years' growth.
An important root crop of the western American Indians was the
famous bread- root upon which they partly subsisted in winter. Belonging
root- clusters of the arrow arum were made edible by ihe Indians by baling for two
days in a. deep pit. Lower right: The bread- root or prairie apple of the West furnished
a major food for both Indians and whites in the early days.
to the Pea family and botanically called Psoralea esculenta, it has also been
known as prairie apple, prairie potato, and pomme blanche. Roasted in
hot ashes, these fleshy roots gave a nutritious food similar to yams. For
winter use they were carefully dried, then stored in dry places in the
huts. When wanted for food they were mashed between two stones,
mixed with water, and baked into cakes over hot coals. Dug early in the
spring they were eaten raw.
The other so- called bread- root, known also as racine blanche, cous,
cous- root, and biscuit- root, Lomatium ambiguum, of the Carrot family,
was similarly important to the early inhabitants, explorers and pioneers
in the West. When fresh it tastes like parsnips, to which it is related, but
as it withers and dries it becomes brittle and very white and acquires a
most agreeable mild flavor as of celery. It keeps well and is easily reduced
to flour. Many other roots of the Umbelliferae have been used, but the
presence of a few species of dangerously poisonous plants in this family
makes it unwise even to suggest them.
Man- of- the- earth, wild jalap, man- root, or wild sweet potato, Ipomoea
pandurata, a pinkish- flowered twin sister of the morning glory, was com­monly
used by the Indians from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi and
even farther west. A vicious weed of farm lands today, it was once a
valuable food, for the edible root sometimes weighs as much as 20 pounds.
In the Southwest, the Indians found a few wild species of Solanum,
notably 5". Jamesii and S. Fremontii, close relatives of the true potato,
Solanum tuberosum, from Peru.
Also in the West, the balsam- root or arrow- leaf, Balsamorrhiza sagittata,
a member of the Thistle family, proved a useful plant to the Indians, for
its agreeable- tasting roots were eaten either raw or cooked. The young
stems were served raw as a salad, and the seeds were roasted and ground
into a kind of flour.
One of the strangest of all the foods of the American Indians is a plant
which is a curiosity in itself. Native in the Sonoran desert and adjacent
sandy wastes to the north, it lives as a parasite on the roots of a shrub.
Until its small flowers appear, the plant closely, resembles a fungus, for
above its entwining roots there is a long subterranean stem which widens
into a succulent funnel- shaped cup out of which the flowers arise just at
the surface of the sand. This succulent underground stem is the portion
that is eaten. Travelers and prospectors have also been known to obtain
a life- saving drink of fresh water from within the submerged cup. The
plant was first seen by a white man during a railroad survey in 1854. It
was described ten years later by John Torrey, the famous botanist, and
named by him Ammobroma sonorac, meaning " sand food of the Sonora."
The Indians, and later the whites of that region, ate the stems either raw
or cooked. When boiled they have a taste like sweet potatoes. The plant
was also ground with mesquite beans to make a kind of pinole.
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How many barks of trees, shrubs, or roots do we use as a food? None
today as a food, and only a few ( such as bark of cinnamon, sassafras, and
cinchona) as spice or medicine. But the Indians used the bark of over 20
species as food. One major group of Indians gained their tribal name,
Algonquin, which means " they eat trees," because bark was a part of their
diet. Species of willow, poplar, pine and cedar were used. The cambium
layer of the western hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla. was scraped off and
made into a coarse bread in the Northwest. The Algonquins also made cakes
of the cambium tissue of slippery elm, Ulmus fulva. Many other
tribes ate bark when food was scarce but they considered it strictly a
famine food.
The Indian ate no mushrooms until the white man showed him how,
but lichens of a dozen different kinds were used. Perhaps the most in­teresting
is Alectoria jubata, a lichen that grows on pine and fir trees in
the Columbia River region. It was considered delicious when cooked
with camass roots or boiled to a jelly- like mass by itself.
The white man is just beginning to learn the food value of the ferns, of
The turnip- l\\ e root of the cow par-snip,
also the young shoots; the root
of the puccoon, and the flesh be­tween
the seeds in the pods of mes­quite
were foods of the North
American Indian.
SSr
Puccoon picture, above at the right,
by courtesy of the University of
Minnesota, Department of Botany.
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WILD PLANTS IN THE INDIAN'S DIET, ALL RECOMMENDED TODAY
Upper left: Three native species of onion— Allium canadense, A. tricoccum, and A.
cernuum, commonly k. nown as wild garlic, lee\, and onion, all of which were enjoyed
by the Indians. Upper right: The ground- nut or wild bean, u; hich furnishes food from
its root tubers, young shoots, and immature seeds. Lower left: Rhizomes, shoots, and
young seed-£ ods of the butterfly- weed all are said to ma\ e pleasant eating. Lower right:
Unfurling fronds of many ferns were eaten by the Indians, and some can be found in
the market today. Bracken, of which only the central part of the stem can be used,
and the cinnamon fern are shown here.
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which the Indians used at least 20 species. Some of these are now being
served in restaurants of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and at least one
kind is being commercially canned. The cinnamon fern, Osmunda cin-namomea,
was used as a spring potherb. The fiddle- heads, or unfurling
fronds, were gathered and simmered for an hour, then put into soup
thickened with flour. This dish, with a flavor similar to wild rice, was
widely eaten. The young fronds of the interrupted fern, Osmunda Clay-toniana,
were also used and considered a good vegetable, tasting somewhat
like chestnuts.
The outstanding fern plant used as a food was the common brake or
bracken, Pteridium aquilinum. The rhizome was used by many tribes, its
bark being removed and the white heart roasted. Though it resembles the
dough of wheat, its taste is too pungent for most white people, but the
Indians relished this nutritious food, particularly in the Northwest. The
intermediate part of the frond in the early spring is delicious and when
properly prepared it suggests asparagus shoots.
We have had our long walk through the woods and fields and have
discovered that sustenance can be found if we but look for it. There is
food in the woods, prairies and meadows, along the shores of lakes and
rivers, in pools, even on the margins of deserts. We do not recommend
these native foods as staple articles of diet but suggest them in cases of
necessity. Our present controlled and selected foods cannot be surpassed
in flavor, nutrition, digestibility, and satisfaction. A little knowledge of
the uses of our native plants, however, does have value, offers a possible
new flavor or spice for the gourmet, and provides a source of food in
an emergency.
Wild ^ Plants Used in ( Rookery
By Milton Hopkins,
University of Oklahoma
THE idea of using native American plants for cooking is as old as
the aborigines on this continent. Undoubtedly our forefathers de­rived
many more ideas of value from the Indians than they ever gave in
return, and one of their most useful lessons was that of obtaining vege­table
products from selected herbs, shrubs, and trees.
So if you ever tire of the more or less common foods from your local
market— and who does not?— there is a way of bringing to your table
some of the most delectable dishes ever tasted, by using ordinary plants
that are growing wild in nearby pastures, fields, and woods. Though
doubtless acquainted with many, we are inclined to overlook them in
preference to commercial fruits and vegetables, and thereby we are miss-
72
ing the spice of novelty that they might provide in our diet, as well as
the benefit of their abundant vitamins.
But before we begin to experiment with them, a word of caution ought
to be given. Unless you are absolutely sure of your plant and can identify
it as to genus and species, and unless you know that it contains no harmful
or dangerous chemicals, stay away from it. Ignorance can cause calami­ties
of the most tragic kind, and the game is most assuredly not worth
the candle. But if, on the other hand, you are positive that the plants
are edible, there are innumerable recipes which you can concoct from them,
For example, the tubers of arrowhead ( Sagittaria latifolia), which is
common on the margins of ponds and swamps and in other moist places
of eastern and central North America, are as toothsome a morsel as
anyone could hope to enjoy. I have eaten them baked and boiled, as one
cooks potatoes, and found them eminently satisfactory. They should be
cooked about 30 minutes and are best if they are peeled afterward. The
mealy quality of the potato is not present, and the texture is somewhat
more smooth. The arrowhead tuber makes a superb dish for picnic
suppers and lunches, and if the picnic grounds are not too far distant
from a colony, one can make the event outstanding by asking the guests
to dig their own tubers and roast them in a bed of hot smouldering coals.
Another plant which might serve as a substitute for the potato is the
ground- nut, or wild bean ( Apios tuberosa). Eaten raw, the root tubers
are quite palatable, but they are better when cooked for about half an
hour. Boil or bake them and serve them without any seasoning, as condi­ments
or spices spoil the flavor. The ground- nut belongs to the Bean
and Pea family and it grows wild as a twining vine in light woods from
Minnesota, Kansas, and Texas, all the way eastward.
Then there is the hog peanut, which cannot be excluded from this group.
Its botanical name is Amphicarpa monoica, and it grows in deep rich
woodlands in moist soils and extends throughout the same general range
as the wild bean. Although the seeds of this plant are the edible portions,
these develop underground like the true peanut and must be dug out.
They are somewhat sweetish but more pleasant than the raw commercial
peanut, which at best is not particularly agreeable. The Indians ate these
hog peanuts raw, as a- fruit, and I have tried them several times myself.
Unfortunately, no records seem extant which would indicate their value
as a substitute for the roasted peanut, nor have I ever tried them this
way. But if dug out of the ground they last for several weeks in the
house and make a highly nutritious food.
Among the plants producing edible leaves and stems there are so many
that space will permit me to mention only a few. Perhaps my favorite
dish is a salad of mixed spring greens, all of which can be obtained from
roadsides and vacant lots. I like to gather as many different kinds as I
can and mix them together in an ordinary wooden salad bowl which has
73
been previously wiped with the bulbs of the common wild onion. Here
is my recipe:
1 large bunch of young curly dock leaves ( Rumex crispus)
2 or 3 clusters of young basal rosettes of shepherd's purse ( Capsella Bursa-pastoris)
6 or 8 bunches of young dandelion greens ( Taraxacum officinale)
3 large bunches of watercress ( Radicula Nastnrtium- aquaticum)
or 2 or 3 bunches of the basal leaves of the violet wood- sorrel ( Oxalis violacea)
Chop the ingredients thoroughly and marinate just before sen ing with
a dressing of vegetable oil, vinegar, and spices as desired. Serve on a bed of
young leaves of curly dock and garnish with the watercress leaves.
This makes a salad of which the most epicurean taste would be proud,
and as well as being tasty and attractive in appearance it is extremely
rich in vitamins. Endless combinations and variations may be tried from
these salad plants, but in my estimation they all require a highly seasoned
dressing. As they absorb the oil very rapidly, the greens should not be
marinated until immediately before serving. In making the dressing I use
as many spices as I have on hand, especially mustard and garlic. These
greens usually have a somewhat bitter taste but the dressing eliminates
that entirely.
If you hesitate about eating plants raw, then here are some suggestions
for potherbs. Purslane { Portulaca oleracea) is one of the most common
weeds in gardens all over North America and is a noxious pest. Its
succulent reddish- purple stems and small, fattish leaves in whose axils
appear the tiny yellow flowers are familiar to everyone who has expe­rienced
the pleasures of gardening. In my opinion these young leaves
and stems, when cooked about 15 minutes in boiling salted water, are far
better than spinach or Swiss chard. Their flavor is more delicate, being
not unlike that of beet greens. But they cook down at an almost appalling
rate, and a mess adequate to serve four people would require several quarts
of the fresh greens. But when the weed is so abundant in every garden,
the mere gathering of a sufficient quantity is nothing. Of all the potherb-plants,
purslane excels. On only one possible count can it be excluded.
It does have a slimy aspect, much like the pods of cooked okra, and this
feature might make it objectionable to some persons.
Lamb's- quarters ( Chcnopodium album) are also good, are almost as
ubiquitous as a weed, and are cooked in exactly the same way.
Another favorite potherb of mine is a plant familiar to all gardeners
and the bane of most of them, the common chickweed ( Stellaria Mcadia)
which I cook in boiling salted water for 20 minutes and use it like
purslane. ( One does tire of the same dishes day after dav, even of
weeds!) Its taste is somewhat inferior to that of purslane, but I rank
it higher than spinach. To retain its delicacy, serve it with plenty of
butter rather than with vinegar, and add salt and pepper to suit the taste.
My favorite vegetable, ranking even higher than purslane, is the boiled
74
young flower parts of the common cat- tail. Typha angustifolia and T.
latifolia serve equally well, but the secret is that one must obtain the
young " tails" when they are only a few inches long and while they are
still green. I cut off the stems with the young inflorescences at their
tips and cook them in boiling salted water for 15 or 20 minutes. When
they are tender they may be served either with drawn butter or with a
cream sauce, and eaten as one eats asparagus. Unless gathered when
they are very young the result is a vegetable so tough and unpleasant
that it is not possible to chew it arid the whole thing must be thrown away.
But give me the young tails, whose taste is like a cross between string
beans and asparagus; there is nothing finer.
But what of those plants whose leaves are the sources of beverages?
There are many of these but we can discuss only a few. One of the
best is the New Jersey tea ( Ceanothus am eric anus) whose dried leaves
make an excellent infusion. This shrub was abundantly used during the
American Revolution as a substitute for imported tea, and although the
flavor is not so good it has the same refreshing qualities. The leaves
should be plucked when young, in the late spring or early summer, and
dried for several weeks in a warm, dry closet. Then they may be pulver­ized
and used as one would use ordinary tea leaves. Lemon improves
the flavor as does a touch of cinnamon, but sugar and cream may be
added instead if desired. New Jersey tea tastes not at all like Ceylon
or Indian or Chinese tea, but it is not a bad substitute, and of all the wild
plants whose leaves make good infusions, this is by far the best.
Some people like a tea made from the leaves of either wild bergamot
or bee balm ( Monarda fistulosa and M. didyma). The beverage made
from either species has a very delightful minty fragrance, and although
the aroma is not so delicate as spearmint or peppermint, it is highly
prized. I dry the young leaves in much the same manner as those of
New Jersey tea, and serve the resulting tea with several slices of orange.
This deadens the rather strong minty odor and gives one a much more
satisfactory infusion. It is always a novelty, and although I should not
care to drink the beverage more than once a week, I consider it a pleasing
and refreshing variation from ordinary tea.
Now let us look for a moment at plants with edible fruits and seeds.
Here one finds' an imposing list. Some make good vegetables, some are
best for pies and puddings, many yield jams and jellies of the highest
excellence, and quite a few are a good source of beverages. And then,
of course, one must include the large number of trees whose nuts are so
delicious.
First of all there is the persimmon ( Diospyros virginiana) which,
although it is not abundant northeast of Pennsylvania and New Jersey,
cannot be omitted from this paper. It is generally regarded as a useless
fruit, but if its rightful place were bestowed upon it by cooking specialists
75
it would rank well toward the top of any list. As England has her tradi­tional
plum pudding for Christmas, so ought America to have her baked
persimmon pudding. 1 The tree is so common in central and southwestern
North America, and its fruits are so flagrantly wasted that it is a pity
to pass them by. If a market could be created for them, whole orchards
might be started and the resulting profits to farmers would be considerable.
Of course the fruits must never be gathered until several frosts have
touched them, thus making them sweet and edible. And if you wish to
try persimmon pie, use any recipe for pumpkin pie but substitute the
persimmon meat for the pumpkin.
One of my favorite jellies and jams is made from either wild black­berries
or raspberries, and often I combine them. The quality is excellent
and no finer jam exists. Another superior fruit for jam is the lovely
Chickasaw plum ( Prunus angustifolia), which grows in dense low clumps
in sandy regions throughout eastern and central North America, as far
north as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Other wild plums make fine
jams, but none have quite the tang and richness of body which characterize
these fruits. They also make a delicious fruit pie during the early summer
when their reddish- orange drupes hang on the slender branches in great
masses.
Then there is the smooth sumac ( Rhus glabra), whose clusters of
pinkish red fruits can be used for a refreshing cold drink. The little
drupes are ripe in midsummer and should be picked before they become
too old. Their taste is very acid and not at all unlike the lemon. To
make this lemonade one cluster of inflorescences should be used for each
glass. Crush the young fruits with a spoon to extract as much of the
juice as possible. Then add enough sugar to suit the taste ( about two
teaspoons), cover with water and add ice cubes until the glass is full.
The color is a deep pink and the flavor full- bodied. But do not prepare
this drink too far in advance, and do not keep it for more than an hour
or so in the icebox. It quickly becomes rancid and is entirely useless.
For best results it should be prepared and served at once.
In these pages I have discussed only a few of those plants which have
a broad distribution throughout northeastern North America. There are,
however, several plants which, though they are restricted to the prairie
1 Here is my recipe for persimmon pudding:
3 eggs 1 qt. seeded persimmon fruits
V2 teaspoon salt 1 pint cold water
2 cups sweet milk 1 teaspoon soda
3y2 cups flour 1 cup granulated sugar
Wash and seed the fruit ( to make 1 quart, about 3 quarts of whole fruit are
required) and soak them in cold water for about an hour. Then run them through a
colander. Mix the other ingredients in the order given, stirring thoroughly. Pour
the batter into a greased pan and bake at 400° for one hour or until the pudding is a
dark brown in color. Serve either hot or cold with whipped cream or hard sauce
and garnish with maraschino cherries. The pudding keeps well in the icebox for
several days.
76
and plains area of our country, have edible qualities which are very
familiar to anyone who has ever lived in this region. They ought, by all
means, to be mentioned.
The ground plum ( Geoprumnon crassicarpum or, as it is often called by
some botanists, Astragalus caryocarpus) is well known and liked by
everyone who has ever eaten its delicious green seed- pods. Resembling
small green gage plums, these legumes may be eaten raw as a fruit or
cooked as a vegetable like string beans. They also make a pungent pickle.
And what middle- westerner does not know the Indian bread- root or
prairie apple ( Psoralea esculcnta), whose tempting, fat rootstocks are dug
from underground? It is perhaps the most familiar of the edible wild
root- vegetables, and is delectable either cooked or raw. It is the size
of a medium white potato and has a smooth texture and somewhat sweetish
flavor when it is cooked, more palatable than a turnip and not unlike that
of a parsnip.
My objective has been not to compile a list of the many species of
edible plants, but rather to discuss only a few whose attributes are well
known to me from actual experience with them. There are literally
hundreds of others, equally delicious.
Weedy and generally ubiquitous plants can be used in cookery as fre­quently
as they are desired. But those plants whose roots are prized for
their qualities may become extinct if they are used too often. So it is
best to go easy on them and stick to the leafy weeds.
cMedicines From ^ Plants
Panaceas, Charms, and Efficacious Remedies
Employed by the North American Indian
By Marion A. and G. L. Wittrock
" A / f A K E - H I M F E E L - G O O D " w a s t h e Indian name for any
i- Vl. medicinal herb, and such a plant was prized, respected, and
venerated as highly as any food plant. The two were closely linked, for
to be unable to eat was to the North American aborigine a form of tor­ture,
a sign of sickness, to be overcome with medicinal herbs. The Indian
knew that in order to enjoy his food, he must keep himself in good
health. When he felt sick, he had the utmost faith in the medicine man
of his tribe, and he was a willing patient, taking any and every decoction
or brew, and applying any liniment or poultice prescribed. No challenge
or doubt ever came to his mind; to him his medicine man was all- powerful.
Did not this sacred person have direct contact with all spirits, evil or
good? Was not his wisdom even greater than that of the chief, who
77
rarely acted on important tribal problems before consulting him? The
chief of the tribe may have ruled his braves; but the medicine man was
the counselor, teacher, healer, comforter, prophet, and wise one of the
tribe— one to fear, to follow, to obey.
What was his concept of medicine? Explanation of cause and effect
was based on superstition and the supernatural, but application of plant
drugs was founded on empirical experience and pragmatic reasoning. A
plant juice, a tea from a leaf, or a chewed root was good if it worked;
if the medicine failed to cure or heal, the failure was charged to the
" evil spirit" who played an important part in the life of the tribe. Should
he fail in his prophecy to bring rain, a good crop of plant ' food, or plenty
of game, or err in his diagnosis of the sick brave, the medicine man could
always blame the " evil one'' and call on the " good spirit" to help him
overcome the evil taboo. Thus the medicine and religion of the tribe
were closely related.
How much actual knowledge of plants did this medicine man have?
Outside of what he gained by experience in healing, most of his learning
was acquired from his predecessor; in fact, this knowledge, which was
confined to the medicine man and his special " society/' was the most
sacred thing in the tribe. All members of this elite, secret body were
appointed by the acting medicine man. In the Omaha tribe, this group
was called the " Shell Society." Young braves could qualify only when
they succeeded in passing severe and physically painful tests.
Ethnologists have always found it most difficult to learn the secret
knowledge of the medicine man, for the sanctity of this " doctor" came
direct from the spirit world, and it was considered disastrous to the tribe
to reveal its " medicine" to the " white pagan."
The Legend of Medicine
Supposedly, the practice of Indian medicine in most tribes had been
taught long ago by the great spirits of the first tier of the spirit world
where the first " medicine lodge" existed. The legend is told somewhat
as follows:
One of the kind spirits descended to earth and showed the wise Grand­mother
( or Mother) Earth the medicine bag with its roots, leaves and
fruits. He gave her charge of them and she was to keep and nurture
them, and to allow them to grow and obtain added power. The spirit
then— his name varied with the tribes— appeared before the tribe and
instructed the original forefather of the tribe to build a medicine
lodge within a given time, usually four days. On the fourth day the
spirit again appeared and sent the young Indians away while he in­structed
and initiated the elders to the lodge. He gave them fundamentals
about the uses of plants and medicines and taught them the proper cere­mony
for each.
78
This legend reveals why Indians revered " Mother Earth" and why
they always showed their respect, their appreciation for all she had given
to them in food, fiber, and medicine. A gift of tobacco was always
placed in the hole of a plant that had been dug for medicine, and all the
first ripened seed or food was returned to Mother Earth in the spirit of:
" Thank you, Mother Earth; you shall have the first.''
The proper dance with its impressive costumes and masques, the ritual,
and the symbolism it represented were quite as important as plant medi­cines
in the art of healing. The more baffling an illness the greater and
longer was the dance, through which the spirits were invoked for con­sultation.
While the sympathizers—- usually the members of the Society
and of the immediate family, and sometimes even the Chief— sat in a
circle around the patient to keep out evil spirits, the medicine man, to
the beat of the tom- tom, danced himself into a trance to gain the proper
entrance to the spirit world for advice. If the trance failed to develop
he would resort to drugs to gain the effect. The diagnosis thus proceeded
until the patient either recovered or he passed on to the " happy hunting
ground," the Indian's heaven, never to return. A fee was charged, the
amount depending on the nature of the sickness, payable in the form of
beads, blankets, baskets or hides, even ponies.
The medicine lodge was the Indian's drug store, the medicine man's
sanctum. Minor ailments were treated there. But if the case was serious,
the medicine man called on the patient and administered his decoctions.
If no change developed, he gave a stronger herb. Should this also fail, he
resorted to the smoke treatment, which usually consisted of burning leaves,
stems and, for some conditions, flowers, thus causing a smoke for the
patient to inhale; or he heated stones for a sweat bath in a " steam tepee,"
throwing essential oil plants on the hot stones for their volatile vapors.
If these remedies failed, the illness was considered most serious; he then
resorted to more severe treatments and mystic symbolisms. If the patient
was in a coma, and showed little sign of life, the medicine man would
resort to a strong sternutative, a sneeze medicine. The pulverized root
bark of the Kentucky coffee- tree, Gymnocladus dioica, was so used. If one
spark of life still existed in the patient, he would certainly sneeze—- some­times
fatally. Many such sneeze- inducing plants were available to the
medicine man.
If at this point the patient still showed no signs of improvement, and
there was still life, the medicine man then called on the higher spirits
through the dance.
We have often heard people express the idea that the Indian must have
been healthy because he lived outdoors in good fresh air and sunshine
with plenty of exercise and good natural food. If this were all true the
Indian population at the advent of Columbus could easily have been so
large that our forefathers would have had trouble finding an open place
79
HERBS FOR CATARRH AND
SWELLINGS
The root of the golden- seal ( shown in flower at the left) was used by the Indians, as
it is used by doctors today, for catarrhal conditions. Leaves of the wild calla ( right)
gave the Indians a poultice for swellings.
to settle. What prevented the growth in Indian population ? One of the
many reasons is most obvious: sanitation, a problem that was never solved
by the aborigines. When a camp ground became uninhabitable, the tribe
would simply move to another site. Whole tribes have been wiped out
with one stroke of a bacterial pestilence that possibly gained its start in
the rubbish heap. Sickness was ever present for the medicine man to cure.
Remedies for Common Stomach Ache
Stomach trouble, often caused by over- eating, was one of the major
problems of the medicine man. Indians enjoyed eating, but did not always
eat wisely. Many of the plants included in their diet were so fibrous
and indigestible that explorers exclaimed on the possible condition of the
Indian's stomach. They could not always digest the food that was eaten.
After a big feast, many a brave would seek his medicine man, holding
his hand on his aching stomach. What was the remedy? Northern America
contained more than 100 plant species from among which the Indian doctor
could choose a stomachic. The outstanding remedy was the sweet flag or
calamus root, Acorus Calamus, considered by many tribes a cure- all. The
ailing Indian would simply chew the root a long time, then would some­times
swallow the pulp. So valuable was this root considered by the
Indians that it was used as a medium of exchange. Why not, when it
was considered a good remedy for dyspeptic conditions, fever, flat­ulence,
cough, toothache, and colic? The whole plant was used in the
smoke treatment for colds. Hunters made garlands of the leaves to hang
around their necks for their pleasant odor and mystic powers. Dakota
warriors chewed the root to a paste which they rubbed on their faces to
prevent excitement and fear in the presence of their enemies. White
men, too, have considered calamus root a good remedy. It was listed in
the pharmacopoeia of the past, and one druggist in New York City in­formed
us that the root was dispensed in his store as late as 1925. It is
still a popular medicine in Europe.
Among other plants that the medicine man used as stomachics were the
rhizome of wild ginger, slsarum canadense; of colic- root, Asarum virgini-cum;
and of the lovely aquatic plant called the water- shield, Brasenia
Schreberi; the leaves and roots of pipsissewa or prince's pine, Chimaphila
umbeliata; and the orange- colored root of the gold- thread, Coptis trifolia.
The Indian doctor may decide that the proper medicine is an emetic,
a mild laxative, or even a strong cathartic. What an amazing assortment
of herbs were available! If emetics were his decision, he could choose
from among 137 species of plants; laxatives could be had from 68 species,
and cathartics from 152 which grew wild north of the Mexican border.
Not all were available in any one region, but every medicine bag contained
a large number of different kinds. The buckthorn was one of the im­portant
emetic plants of the Indians in the Northwest. To us, as cascara
sagrada, Rhamnus Purshmna is known as one of the safest and best laxa­tives
in the world, much surpassing the European species, Rhamnus
cathartica.
In the East, one of these many excellent emetic plants was the witch
hazel, Hamamelis virginiana, a brew of the inner bark being used particu­larly
in cases of poisoning. The Indian also found it useful as a liniment
to cure lame backs or to be rubbed on athlete's legs to keep them limber.
The volatile oil of the plant was used in sweat baths for many ailments.
Lotions were prepared for skin troubles and a decoction was highly valued
as a wash for sore eyes. How similar are our own uses, today, of this
plant. Other interesting emetics were the black drink, yaupon, or emetic
holly, Ilex vomitoria, the compass- plant, SUphium laciniatuiu, and the star-flowered
Solomon's seal, Smiiacina stellata.
Headaches for the Medicine Man to Cure
There is not a race in the world that is immune to headaches. Indians
suffered from them too, caused by the same factors— over- eating, domestic
problems, tribal wars, worry, and excesses of all kinds. The medicine man
had his headaches too, his own and those of his tribe. What magic could
he resort to from his bag of remedies? Counter- irritants gave the quickest
relief. An oil, liniment, powder, or salve applied externally would cause
a greater pain by its sting, smart, or heat with the result that the headache
might become secondary and eventually disappear. Though we too recog­nize
the value of counter- irritants, very few of ours are the same as those
used by the Indians. Perhaps the most interesting primitive headache
81
cure was the jack- in- the- pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum, the corm of which
was pulverized and dusted on the aching temples. The theory was that
perspiration would activate the calcium oxalate crystals in the powder and
cause a burning sensation which would become so intense that the head­ache
was gradually forgotten. Among other headache remedies from
plants were the crushed seeds of wild columbine, Aquilegia canadensis;
tea of the leaves and flowers of yarrow, Achillea Millefolium; an inhalant
of crushed roots of spreading dogbane, Apocynum androsaemifolium,
vaporized on live coals; and a decoction of the leaves of the headache- weed,
Clematis Douglasu.
Colds and Fevers Among the Indians
Did the Indians also suffer from colds as we do today ? Yes, and the
medicine man had even more remedies than we have for this still unsolved
scourge of man. The general medicine bag might offer any of 88 differ­ent
kinds of plants to use against colds in the form of a tea, a poultice or
plaster, or compounded with other species in a cough syrup. A quart of
tea made of the inner bark of the hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, was expected
to cure a cold within two days.
Fevers were ever a problem for the medicine man. Some of the simple
ones he could recognize readily, and over the country there were some 113
species of plants from which one tribe or another selected a source for a
febrifuge. Some of these medicines we know to be effective: the root of
the wild sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis; the leaves of the spicebush ( some­times
called fever- bush), Benzoin aestivale; a decoction of the roots of
blue cohosh, or great- fever- medicine, Caulophyllum thalictroides. The bark
of the American Judas- tree or redbud, Ccrcis canadensis, and a tea from
the leaves of Penstemon grandiflorus were also used, likewise a tea from the
leaves and berries of wintergreen, Gaultheria procumbens, to break a fever
or cold, to cure rheumatism and lumbago, and in general, to " make him
feel good." White men learned the medicinal properties of the winter­green
from the Indians, and incorporated it into their pharmacopoeia as
Oleum Gaultheria.
The medicine man apparently knew that sometimes a fever may be
allayed or broken by inducing perspiration. In the various tribes more
than 85 different species were known as diaphoretics. One was the sassa­fras,
Sassafras variifolium, the essential oil of which is the Oleum Sassafras
of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia. The mountain tea, Solidago odora, and the
common boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum, were also used for the relief
of fevers.
Because he had no knowledge of bacteria, many fevers could not be
diagnosed by the medicine man. Yet he recognized lung troubles, particu­larly
when a cough was associated with the fever. Depending upon the
region, he might prepare for pulmonary conditions a balsam decoction
82
THREE MEDICINAL PLANTS
From the bar\ and roots of the fringe- tree ( left) a decoction was made for healing
sores. The witch- hazel ( center) was the source of a lotion for sore eyes. Leaves of the
spice- bush ( right) provided a febrifuge.
from the balsam fir, Abies balsamea; a tea of the wild sarsaparilla, Aralia
nudicaulis; or sweet sage, Artemisia frigida; a brew of dried flowers of
the elderberry, Sambucus caerulea; or of the leaves and flowers of the
gum- plant, Grindclia robusta; or a preparation from the consumptive- weed,
Eriodiciyon californicum. Indians taught the missionary padres in Cali­fornia
the medicinal virtues of this latter plant, which became known as
yerba santa ( holy herb), for it was esteemed as a general tonic and an
excellent medicine for bronchial troubles. Many of the above mentioned
species were used by the school of eclectic physicians in America.
Liver and kidney ailments were diagnosed by many symptoms for which
the medicine men across the continent had more than 36 kinds of plants
as a remedy. Two hundred or more American species were used as
diuretics by the Indians and the eclectics.
83
Heart trouble was also recognized by the medicine man, but he found
very few medicines to combat this serious ailment. A tea from the steeped
leaves of the southern wild ginger, Hexastylis arifolia, and a decoction
from the roots of the daisy fleabane, Erigeron ranwsus. were both drunk
for heart trouble by the Catawba Indians, and the valuable Senega root,
Polygala Senega, which is now an official drug in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia,
was used by others to overcome this illness.
Antiseptics and Healing Agents
The medicine man was truly practical with his antiseptics, healers,
and dressings for wounds in general. His medicine bag was his " first aid
kit," ready for any emergency, from a simple mishap to a tribal war.
Having at hand many astringents which acted as antiseptics, he frequently
did the job practically and efficiently. For wounds in general he resorted
to poultices, brews and decoctions of leaves, roots, and barks. Wound
medicine was obtained from 101 different plant species. Little- buffalo-medicine
or wind- flower, Anemone canadensis, was one of these wound
medicines highly esteemed for many ills. A brew of the roots was applied
externally and taken internally, and was also used as a wash for sore
eyes. Meskwaki Indians of Wisconsin used this medicine as a remedy to
cure crossed eyes. The same tribe used a small piece of root as a lozenge
to clear the throat so that they could sing well in the medicine lodge cere­mony.
The root chewed slowly to a pulp and placed on a wound often
served as a styptic.
Another remarkable styptic was a species of puffball, Lycoperdon
gcmmatum, one of the few fungi that the Indians dared to use, since,
in general, fungi were definitely feared. The spores of the species would
merely be dusted on the bleeding wound. One of the most valuable anti­septic
styptics was the staghorn sumac, Rhus typhina, the bark of which
has a puckering effect because of the tannin it contains.
Wounds that did not heal well were classed with sores, and these, in
general, were treated either by fresh plant juices, saps, tissues, barks and
leaves, or by these substances prepared in the form of poultices, salves,
or decoctions. The fringe tree, Chiona) ithus virginicus, and the leaves of
the beautiful yellow clintonia, Clintonia borealis, and of alum- root,
Heuchera americana, were among the 70 or more plant species used
on sores.
For minor cuts the " doctor" had a choice of 32 species of plants, while
for bruises he had more than half a hundred. He also had medicine for
burns and scalds, most of the 48 species so used having tannin as a basic
ingredient. One of the surprising remedies for healing burns was the
down of the fruit- spikes of the common cat- tail, Typha latifolia. The
same down added to rendered fat of the coyote was made into a plaster
to be applied to the pustules of smallpox patients.
84
Bites by insects, scorpions, dogs, and snakes were always treated by
the medicine man. The Seminole Indians used a species of iris as a healer
for alligator bites ( if the reptile did not take too big a bite). Snake
bites, in general, were treated by antidotes obtained from at least 55
different species, while rattlesnake bites were counteracted by more than
24 species, most of which are recognizable today by their common name
such as snakewort, snake- root, snake- bane, etc. The rattlesnake weed,
Echinacea angustifolia, was applied extensively by the Indians and later
by white traders as an antidote for poisonous bites, particularly by
rattlesnakes. A poultice of the leaves of the rattlesnake root, Prenanthes
alba, steeped in hot water was also considered effective.
Sedatives, Tonics, and Panaceas
Sedatives for nerves were also prescribed by the medicine man. Of
these he had, as our records show, 44 species from which he could select.
Narcotics also had their place in the medicine lodge, but their use was
mainly for the medicine man himself, for the narcotic effect to bring on
visions and contacts with the spirit world.
When the patient was convalescing, the medicine man would resort to
tonics to aid quicker recovery. We have found records of nearly 250
species that were so used. More than 100 kinds of stimulants were pre­scribed,
some to stimulate appetite, others for the heart, liver, intestines,
nervous system, respiration, stomach, and as revivers from faints, comas
and other similar conditions.
The medicine man considered more than 30 species as cure- alls. Some
of these panaceas have already been mentioned. Our common bearberry,
Arctostaphylos Uva- ursi, was one of the important medicines used to
relieve any ailment, and it was also used as a seasoner to mask the taste
of other medicines. In the National Formulary it is recognized as an
official medicine for its diuretic, tonic and astringent qualities. The
American wild mint, Mentha canadensis, was brewed into a tea for many
complaints. Another decoction was made from New Jersey tea, Ceanothus
americanus. Because the roots were matted, twisted, and knotted, they
suggested strength, and because the inner bark was colored red it sym­bolized
the intestines. Therefore this plant was looked upon as a powerful
medicine for all stomach and bowel ailments. Another panacea was the
Missouri gourd, Cucurbita foetidissima. It was said to possess special
mystic powers, so only authorized Indians dared to handle this sacred
plant, about which many stories told were colored with fatal experiences
to the careless. As a remedy for any ailment, a portion of the root from
the part corresponding in position to the affected part of the patient's
body was used. Other interesting cure- alls were the Indian hemp,
Apocynum cannabhuun; sweet cicely, Osmorhiza longistylis, and the
butterfly- weed or pleurisy- root, Asclepias tuberosa.
85
Many questions have been asked on the value of Indian herbs. Some
of these questions are: What has the medicine man given us? Are his
medicinal herbs of any value? What of his primitive practice, his form
of diagnosis? Has this strange mystic technique contributed something
to the knowledge of man ?
Most of his medicines were remedies and as remedies they were not
necessarily good curatives. Civilization has, however, accepted many of
his herbs, and the best of them are now being utilized by the white man, as
proved by our record of 45 species that have been at one time or still are
official medicines in the U. S. Pharmacopoeia or National Formulary. We
have already mentioned a few of these official drugs. Others of
interest are:
Common Name
Male Fern
May Apple
Wild Cherry
Virginia Snakeroot
Sweet Gum
American White
Hellebore
Golden Seal
Juniper
Latin Name Present- day Use
U. S. PHARMACOPOEIA
Dryoptcris
FUix- mas
Podophyllum
pellatnm
Prunus virginiana
( P. serotina)
Aristolochia
Serpentaria
Liauidambar
Styraciflua
Veratrum viride
Vermifuge
Emetic and cathartic
Bark for bitter tonic,
stimulant and seda­tive,
berries to mask
med. flavor.
Stimulant, tonic for
stomach ; diaphoretic
valuable for fevers.
Antiseptic, disinfectant
especially for cuts.
Cardiac and muscular
sedative.
NATIONAL FORMULARY
Hydrastis
canadensis
Juniperus
communis
Tonic and catarrhal
conditions
Essential oil, diuretic
and aromatic
Indian Use
Vermifuge
Insecticide, snake bites,
dropsy and rheu­matism.
Bark for coughs and
colds; inner bark as
a mask for med.
flavor.
Brew for stomach
pains and fevers.
Cuts and bruises ( very
valuable medicine in
Mexico since earli­est
times).
Wounds and aches,
headaches.
Remedy for eczema;
inhalant for catarrh.
Diuretic, flavor and
asthma.
It is surprising to note in the above list the similarity of Indian reme­dies
compared with today's official use of the herbs. With few exceptions
they are alike. Eclectics, however, used a great many more of the native
plants; in fact, we estimate that they used at least 300 different species,
or about 17% of the total number of medicinal herbs that were used by
the American Indians.
The white man still has much to learn about the uses of plants from
his predecessors on the North American continent. While some of the
Indian's remedies which were adopted early have recently been dropped
from official use in medicine, largely because of the development of syn­thetic
products, others, when they are tested, may yet prove efficacious.
As the white man learns about these plants, he will be wise if he also
adopts the Indian's belief that the " medicine man" is all- powerful and that
only he has the knowledge and right to determine which plant shall be
used to cure an ailment. So when the white man becomes ill, let him
remember the Indian, who never prescribed for himself, but who faith­fully
followed the word of his tribal " doctor."
A N N O U N C E M E N T S
The
of forthcoming events at
New York Botanical Garden
INTERNATIONAL FLOWER SHOW
" Food and Drug Plants of the North American Indian" is the subject
of the Botanical Garden's exhibit this year at the International Flower
Show in Grand Central Palace, New York City, March 16- 21. More than
100 kinds of plants are to be shown, accompanied by labels that describe
their uses. The material selected for the exhibit is based on the research
of Mr. and Mrs. G. L. Wittrock, who have also contributed the two leading
articles to this issue of the Journal.
HERB CONFERENCE
April 7 and 8 in the Museum Building
Open to the public without charge
MRS. HELEN MORGENTHAU FOX, Chairman
PROGRAM
TUESDAY, 10: 30 a. m.
Address of Welcome DR. W I L L I AM J. ROBBINS, Director, New York Botanical Garden
The Back- Yard Herb Garden MRS. HELEN M. FOX, Advisory Council, N. Y. B. G.
The Use of Herbs in Cooking Miss EDITH M. BARBER, Food Editor, N. Y. Sun
Herbs in Cosmetics Miss MALA RUBINSTEIN, Rep. Mme. Helena Rubinstein
Herbs in Perfumery MR. CHRISTIAN WIGHT, Perfumer- Chemist
TUESDAY, 2: 30 p. m.
China's Contribution in Medicinal Herbs DR. W. M. PORTERFIELD, U. S. Dept. Agri.
Spices— Past, Present, and Future MR. M. L. VAN NORDEN, Amer. Spice Trade Asso.
WEDNESDAY, 10: 30 a. m.
Address of Welcome DR. W I L L I AM J. ROBBINS, Director, New York Botanical Garden
North American Indian Customs with Medicinal Plants
MR. G. L. WITTROCK, Curator of the Herbarium, N. Y. B. G.
87
S. America's Contribution in Medicinal Herbs DR. H. K. SVENSON, Brooklyn B. G.
Motion Picture— The Production of Essential Oils in the Western Hemisphere
Shown through the courtesy of Fritzsche Bros., Inc.
WEDNESDAY, 2: 30 p. m.
Commercial Production of European Drug Plants in America
DR. W. J. BONISTEEL. Professor of Botany, Fordham University
Some Important Drug Plants and their Role in Medicine
DR. C. C. LIEB, College of Pharmacy, Columbia University
Summary of the Conference DR. W. j . BONISTEEL, Professor of Botany, Fordham U.
Luncheon and tea in which herbs will be featured will be served on both days by
the Advisory Council of the Nczv York Botanical Garden and the New York Unit of
the Herb Society of America.
Some of the papers from this two- day conference will be published in zvhole or in
part in forthcoming numbers of this Journal.
SPRING LECTURES
The spring series of free Saturday afternoon lectures at the New York
Botanical Garden will open March 21 with a talk to be given in Chinese
costume by Mr. George Kin Leung, who will describe the garden at his
home in China and give comments on Chinese flowers. The following
Saturday Dr. W. H. Camp will speak on his plant hunting expedition in
Oaxaca. The complete schedule of lectures will be published in the next
Journal. Meanwhile, a card announcing the subjects and speakers will
be mailed free to any person requesting one.
APRIL JOURNAL
More information on wild plants of North America that can be used
for food will be given in an article entitled " Edible Weeds of Wayside
and Woods" written especially for this Journal by Helen Morgenthau Fox.
Also in the April Journal will appear a continuation of the series of
illustrated articles on succulent plants being written by E. J. Alexander of
the Botanical Garden's staff.
Notices and Reviews of Recent < Rooks
( All publications mentioned here may be consulted in the Library of The New
York Botanical Garden or may be purchased on order through the Library.)
Unsung Benefactor of school readers to be concerned more with
Modern Society ^ e contributions of great discoverers and 3 inventors rather than the antics of hero
RUBBER'S GOODYEAR. Adoiph warriors, be they Greek, Roman
Messner, otherwise.
' ' Here in the life of Goodyear, as in the
Whenever I read a book of this nature lives of so many other unsung benefactors
tlie thought invariably occurs to me, of modern society, we find those qualities
how desirable it would be for grade- of persistence, foresight and sacrifice
which have been associated with the real
benefactors of mankind. The opprobrium
of the debtor's prison, the humiliation of
bankruptcy, ill- health, sorrows and
poverty were Goodyear's rewards for dis­covering
the vulcanization process in the
handling of rubber. Another, undoubted­ly,
would have made the discovery, had
he not, but many years might then have
elapsed before that accomplishment which
taught how to overcome its brittleness in
winter and its odorous gumminess in
summer. Simple things, but it took one
man's lifetime to show the world, and
in this volume is the story of his labors.
E. H. FULLING.
Herbs in the Kitchen
York, 1941.
Barrows & Co., New
Leonie dc Sounin's book will prove an
enchanting introduction to herbs. Its
" magic" will enthrall even those who
already think they know their subject.
The author's recollections of years of
fragrance in garden, kitchen and " grand­mother's
laboratory" in Austria, where
she was born and brought up, stimulated
her in her new home in this country to
experiment with herbs and adjust recipes
to the facilities and requirements of
today. Her enthusiasm is contagious ; and
her emphasis on the need for individual
experimentation should be taken to heart.
While some of the menus are imprac­tical
for the average marketer, her
chapter on vegetables should prove a
boon and an inspiration to all who are
anxious to reduce their food budget.
Simple gardening instructions conclude
the volume, pleasantly interspersed with
additional comments on the use of each
herb.
MARCIA GARRICK.
Notes, News, and Comment
Correction. The caption for the illus­tration
of Viburnum tomentosum var.
sterile, appearing on page 41 of the Feb­ruary
Journal, referred to the species,
Viburnum tomentosum. and not to the
variety which was pictured. This variety
bears no fruit,
Visitors. Vicki Baum and her son,
Wolfgang Lert, have visited the conserva­tories
and library at the Garden several
times recently to gather some authentic
botanical and horticultural material for
Miss Baum's next novel.
Rupert C. Barneby, amateur botanist
of Beverly Hills, Calif., left for the
Coast after spending six weeks in the
Britton Herbarium studying the genus
Astragalus.
Prof. Marie- Victorin, Director of the
Montreal Botanical Garden, stopped on
Feb, 16 at the New York Botanical Gar­den,
where he consulted with J. P.
Carabia on the flora of Cuba, on his way
to Cuba for a trip scheduled to last for
several months.
Other visitors to the Garden this past
month included Frank Egler from the
New York State College of Forestry at
Syracuse University; Dr. Anna Mary
Carpenter of Bethlehem, Pa.; Carl Witt-ner
from the Botany Department at Yale,
with Mrs. Wittner; Dr. and Mrs. H. N.
Wheeler of Washington, D. C.; Miss A.
Kogon, a former student from the Sor-bonne;
Dr. and Mrs. Charles J. Lyon of
Dartmouth; and Mrs. E. R. Sansome of
England who is at present in the Depart­ment
of Genetics at Cold Spring Harbor
where she is studying the genetic physi­ology
of the pink bakery mold, Neuro­spora.
Luncheon. On Feb. 9, 24 members of
the Advisory Council of the New York
Botanical Garden held a luncheon in the
Members' Room. After the business
meeting Mrs. Jerome W. Coombs gave a
talk on Alaska.
Art from Flowers. Textile designs
which have been made from flowers found
in the greenhouses and in library books
at the New York Botanical Garden have
been on view since mid- November in the
display rooms of Charles Bloom, Inc.,
in New York City. Seven Pan- American
plants are represented: Stetsonia for
Argentina, Calathea for Brazil, the coffee
plant for Costa Rica, Gunnera for Ecua­dor,
banana plant for Panama, Beau-montia
grandiflora for Honduras, and
Lefcasti for Guatemala. With the ma­terials
are shown the original paintings
made by artists who worked for several
weeks at the New York Botanical
Garden.
T H E N E W Y O R K B O T A N I C A L GARDEN
Officers
JOSEPH R. SWAN, President
HENRY DE FOREST BALDWIN, Vice- president
JOHN L. MERRILL, Vice- president
ARTHUR M. ANDERSON, Treasurer
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE, Secretary
E. C. AUCHTER
HENRY F. DU PONT
MARSHALL FIELD
MRS. ELON HUNTINGTON
HOOKER
PIERRE J AY
Elective Managers
CLARENCE McK. LEWIS
HENRY LOCKHART, JR.
D. T. MACDOUGAL
E. D. MERRILL
ROBERT H. MONTGOMERY
H. HOBART PORTER
FRANCIS E. POWELL, JR.
MRS. HAROLD I. PRATT
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS
A. PERCY SAUNDERS
Ex- Officio Managers
FIORELLO H. LAGUARDIA, Mayor of the City of New York
JAMES MARSHALL, President of the Board of Education
ROBERT MOSES, Park Commissioner
Appointive Managers
By the Torrey Botanical Club
H. A. GLEASON
By Columbia University
MARSTON T. BOGERT MARCUS M. RHOADES
R. A. HARPER SAM F . TRELEASE
T H E S T A FF
WILLIAM J. ROBBINS, P H . D . , Sc. D.
H. A. GLEASON, P H . D .
HENRY DE LA MONTAGNE
A. B. STOUT, P H . D .
FRED J. SEAVER, P H . D . , S C . D .
BERNARD O. DODGE, P H . D .
JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M.
H. W. RICKETT, P H . D.
HAROLD N. MOLDENKE, P H . D .
ELIZABETH C. HALL, A. B., B. S.
FLEDA GRIFFITH
PERCY WILSON
ROBERT S. WILLIAMS
Director
Assistant Director and Head Curator
Assistant Director
Curator of Education and Laboratories
Curator
Plant Pathologist
M. D. Bibliographer Emeritus
Assistant Bibliographer
Associate Curator
Librarian
Artist and Photographer
Research Associate
Research Associate in Bryology
E. J. ALEXANDER Assistant Curator and Curator of the Local Herbarium
W. H. CAMP, P H . D.
CLYDE CHANDLER, P H . D.
ROSALIE WEIKERT
FREDERICK KAVANAGH, M. A.
JOHN H. PIERCE, M. A.
CAROL H. WOODWARD, A. B.
THOMAS H. EVERETT, N. D. HORT.
G. L. WITTROCK. A. M.
OTTO DEGENER. M. S.
A. J. GROUT, P H . D .
ROBERT HAGELSTEIN
JOSEPH F. BURKE
B. A. KRUKOFF
Assistant Curator
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Technical Assistant
Editorial Assistant
Horticulturist
Custodian of the Herbarium
Collaborator in Hazvaiian Botany
Honorary Curator of Mosses
Honorary Curator of Myxomycetes
Honorary Curator of the Diatomaceae
Honorary Curator of Economic Botany
ETHEL ANSON S. PECKHAM Honorary Curator. Iris and Narcissus Collections
ARTHUR J. CORBETT Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds
A. C PFANDER Assistant Superintendent
To reach the Botanical Garden, take the Eighth Avenue Subway to Bedford Park
Blvd., the Third Avenue Elevated to the Bronx Park station, or the New York Central
to the Botanical Garden station; or drive up the Grand Concourse then east on Mosholu
Pkwy,, or, coming from Westchester, turn west at the end of Bronx River Pkwy.
coming from Westchester,
THE CORPORATION OF THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
The New York Botanical Garden was incorporated by a special act of the Legislature of
the State of New York in 1891. The Act of Incorporation provides, among other things, for
a self- perpetuating body of incorporators, who meet annually to elect members of the Board of
Managers. They also elect new members of their own body, the present roster of which is
Ui'vcn below.
The Advisory Council consists of 12 or more women who are elected by the Board. By
custom, they are also elected to the Corporation. Officers are: Mrs. Robert H. Fife, Chairman;
Mrs. Elon Huntington Hooker, First Vice- Chairman; Mrs. William A. Lockwood, Second Vice-chairman;
Mrs. Nelson B. Williams, Recording Secretary; Mrs. Townsend Scudder, Corresponding
Secretary; and Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg, Treasurer.
Arthur M. Anderson
Mrs. Arthur M. Anderson
Mrs. George Arents, Jr.
George Arents, Jr.
Vincent Astor
E. C. Auchter
Dr. Raymond F. Bacon
Prof. L. H Bailey
Stephen Baker
Henry de Forest Baldwin
Sherman Baldwin
Mrs. James Barnes
Mrs. William Felton Barrett
Prof. Charles P. Berkey
Prof Marston T. Bogert
Prof. William J. Bonisteel
George P. Brett
Mrs. Richard de Wolfe Brixe
Mrs. Jonathan Bulkley
Dr. Nicholas M. Butler
Prof. Gary N. Calkins
Mrs. Andrew Carnegie
Miss Mabel Choate
Miss E. Mabel Clark
W. R. Coe
Richard C. Colt
Mrs. Jerome W. Coombs
Mrs. William Redmond Cro
Mrs. C. I DeBevoise
Mrs. Thomas M. Debevoise
Edward C. Delafield
Mrs. John Ross Dclafield
Rev. Dr H. M. Denslow
Julian Detmer
Mrs Charles D. Dickey
Mrs. Walter Douglas
Mrs . John W. Draper
Henry F. du Pont
Mrs. Mosee W. Faitoute
Marshall Field
William B O Field
Mrs. Robert H. Fife
Mrs Henry J Fisher
Harry Harkness Flagler
Mrs. Mortimer J. Fox
Childs Frick
Dr. H. A. Gleason
Mrs. Frederick A. Godley
Mrs. George McM. Godley
Prof. R. A. Harper
Prof. Tracy E. Hazen
Mrs, William F. Hencken
Mrs. A. Barton Hepburn
Capt. Henry B. Heylman
Mrs. Elon H. Hooker
Mrs. Clement Houghton
Archer M. Huntington
Pierre Jay
Mrs. Walter Jennings
Mrs. Alfred G. Kay
Mrs. F. Leonard Kellogg
Mrs. Warren Kinney
H. R. Kunhardt, Jr.
Mrs. Barent Lefferts
Clarence McK. Lewis
Henry Lockhart, Jr.
Mrs. William A. Lockwood
Dr D. T. MacDougal
Mrs. David Ives Mackie
Mrs. H. Edward Manville
Parker McCollester
Louis E McFadden
Mrs. John R McGinley
Dr E. D. Merrill
lohn L. Merrill
Roswell Miller, Jr.
Mrs. Roswell Miller, Jr.
Mrs. Roswell Miller, Sr.
George M. Moffett
H. de la Montagne
Col. Robert H. Montgomery
BarrinRton Moore
Mrs, William H. Moore
J. Picrpont Morgan
Dr, Robert T, Morris
B. Y. Morrison
Mrs, Augustus G. Paine
Mrs. James R. Parsons
Rufus L. Patterson
Mrs. Wheeler H. Peckham
Mrs. George W. Perkins
Howard Phipps
James R. Pitcher
Rutherford Piatt
H Hobart Porter
Francis E. Powell, Jr.
Mrs. Harold I. Pratt
Mrs. Henry St. C. Putnam
Stanley G. Ranger
Johnston L. Redmond
Ogden Mills Reid
Prof, Marcus M. Rhoades
Dr. William J. Robbins
Prof. A, Percy Saunders
John M. Schiff
Mrs. Henry F. Schwarz
Mrs. Arthur Hoyt Scott
Mrs. Arthur H, Scribner
Mrs. Townsend Scudder
Mrs. Samuel Seabury
Mrs. Cuthrie Shaw
Prof, Edmund W, Sinnott
Mrs. Samuel Sloan
Edgar B. Stern
Nathan Straus
Mrs. Theron G. Strong
Mrs. Arthur H. Sulzberger
Joseph R. Swan
Prof. Sam F, Trelease
Mrs. Harold McL. Turner
Mrs. Antonie P. Voislawsky
Allen Wardwell
Nelson M. Wells
Mrs Nelson B. Williams
Mrs. Percy H. Williams
Bronson Winthrop
Grenville L. Winthrop
John C. Wister
Richardson Wrisht